Bad distributor... Any ideas why, or natual wear? *video inside*

[ponycar17]

Bad distributor... Any ideas why, or natural wear? *video inside*

Well, I noticed this yesterday when I cranked up the convertible for a Saturday ride. It made a very odd noise under the hood, so I checked it out and the distributor was just making a rattling sound. I removed it, and there is some REALLY bad play in it... It's almost as if some bushing or bearing went bad... Is this normal wear on a car that sees a lot of track time, and regular 6K shifts, or is there something further I need to look at? The car has 99K on it now... The mods are listed on my web page in the signature.

I ordered an MSD Pro Billet distributor as a replacement...

This is a video of the kind of play I'm talking about, and sorry about the bad lighting...

Small file added for dialup users (~400K)
http://users.myexcel.com/ae4vr/images/baddistsmall.mpg

For Broadband users:
http://users.myexcel.com/ae4vr/images/baddistributor.mpg

 

[ponycar17]

So I take it that no one has seen this before?

 

[Stanger007]

Whoa. None of my distributors do that. The one that I replaced on my Mach 1 had a tiny bit, but nothing like that.

 

[ponycar17]

Yeah, and it still idled decently, and pulled right up to 6000 RPMs... I guess the new distributor should help, but I just hope all that slop didn't screw up my oil pump...

 

[Stang951]

GAWD DANG IT. I have never seen one with the bushings that far gone. It was't eating caps, or anything else?
The only thing that was probably keeping it in place is the oil pump shaft.

 

[ponycar17]

It didn't cause any problems until it started rattling... That's the first time I noticed it...