Dear All

Last night I had a problem with my ITR. It is a UK RHD 98 ITR (Euro Spec). On the way home last night shifting from 3rd (at about 6000rpm) into 4th the car started juddering violently, with occasionally puffs of black smoke, eventually when i stopped the car would not restart. I pushed it on the curb and tried to restart it, I had no luck without even the starter engaging (just the solenoid clicking). I thought that the engine had been catastrophically damaged, so I called recovery. When he arrived he also thought there was serious damage, but after rocking the car in gear, it seemed to free the starter motor. The car would then crank, but would not start. The recovery man and I started to fault find the car, but couldnt due to the location (side of a busy main road). We then towed the car back to my house (an experience with the super low towing eye). At my house we also checked the spark, this was very weak and irregular. The next step was to check the dizzy, so when we removed this the cap we found the rotor arm to be in pieces. We also could not find the retaining screw. I believe that the retaining screw worked loose over time and fell out at this point, causing the rotor arm to move back and forth against the cap. I will order a new arm and cap on Monday (nothings open in europe on weekends) and will replace it. Do you guys think that this is the only problem. I looked on the service checklists and I cant see any mention of checking distributor on it so I can only assume that the retaining screw worked loose over 65k miles. Has anyone else had this happen to them??? Also could any damage have occured from slowing down??? And in the manual I couldnt see anything about replacing the rotor arm, should you use thread lock on the retaining screw, or is there a torque setting for it?? And if the car is cranking, could there be any major engine damage??? Sorry for so many questions, but this is the first problem with the car in 3yrs 40k miles.

Thanks for any replies

John

 

Wishes I had my car to go outside and take the cap off to look for possible danger

Sounds like you had a problem and might get a way with a semi-cheap fix

 

yes its a comon problem i hear. dist. rotor screw coming off. i say try to remove the dist. and the carbon cover. shake it so to make sure that the bolt is not stuck back there somewhere. after you have replaced the rotor, spin it around by hand to make sure that the dist. is not starting to siezed. then re-install everything back. as far as the starter getting jammeb. maybe you tried to re-start a couple of times and cause it the get stuck between gears? kinda weired for both this to happen at one time.
if you put lock tight you might have a hard time remiving it next time. just tighten the new screw and check it everytime you service the car.

 

Yes, that has happened to another R that I know of on this board.

I would first fix dist. problem, then I would diagnose the starter/flywheel issue.