98cherokee531

Has anyone had this problem? I noticed the other day my 98 chirps at an idle real faintly but loud enough to hear it. A video on youtube claims it was the entire distributer not cap and rotor. Can anyone chime in on this and add anything? What's it take to swap out a distributer? I come from small block Chevys where top dead center is king.

CCKen

The distributor can be easily disassembled and lubed (if not too far gone).

If you want to try this let me know and I can show you the way.

If you do want to proceed, do not remove the distributor at this time.

jj1562

I was told the same thing by a "mechanic" he wanted $300 to change out the distributor, I laughed in his face, I took the cap off and noticed the rotor was shot! It was burnt and looked like I was melted, replaced it and the chirping stopped

98cherokee531

Once I get a little time back under my belt I will do a basic once over on the cap and check to see if either the cap or rotor or both are worn. Next question. If so, any recommendations as to what to replace it with?

dmill89

The brand isn't that important (though it is generally a good idea to stick with quality "name" brands if possible), but make sure they have brass contacts as these resist corrosion much better than the standard aluminum contacts.

98cherokee531

Good deal, accel sells a kit for 30 bucks at the local auto parts store. Only other option was some drive works brand I steered clear of being it was 12 bucks for a cap and 5 for rotor. I got the accel kit

pdowty68

Check for play in the shaft first, if it's ok then replace cap, rotor, plugs, and wires while you're at it

djb383

We replaced our OE dizzy with a re-man unit from AutoZone.....about $110, iirc. Not much different than changing most any other dizzy....just pay close attention to how things are lined up/positioned before removing old dizzy (take pics with your phone), don't rotate the crank after the old dizzy is out and install the new dizzy so things are lined-up/positioned exactly the same as they were with the old dizzy. It make several "drop ins, pull outs" to get the new dizzy positioned exactly like the old one, but that's about it. Our old dizzy with only like 60K miles was very tight to turn by hand.

CCKen

Made me dizzy to read that post. LOL

OverlandZJ

Infamous? Have a link to that youtube vid? I believe you might have seen the vid on the "laughing monkey" as they call it, but that's pretty much TJ coilpack engines specifically.

Theres a very long thread at Jeepforum on this, and the SG mod to fix it. I did one recently for a bud's 06 LJ Rubicon.

My point being that the issue is less problematic in the other dizzy's, however you may just have a bushing going bad. Pulling it and inspecting the oilpump drive gear and shaft binding would be a good idea.

If you replace it.. TDC on #1 compression stroke like all others, align indicator to 0 on timing tab.

djb383

I was getting dizzy typing it.

CCKen

Waiting to see if the OP needs post #2.

98cherokee531

I bought an accel cap and rotor coming today. The distributer didn't look to be worn, didnt feel it either, but I noticed the cap button was kinda corroded and the tabs where the rotor contacts were worn a bit/corroded. We will see why happens. The noise is off and on

djb383

Probably need to pull the old one so u can turn it by hand to tell if it's tight/bad bushing. Ours was really tight, probably getting hot, glad we found it when we did.

BenS

I'm about to replace my first distributor ever tomorrow. I noticed someone said to look at some seals while it is out. Any pics or diagrams to give a better idea? I randomly decided to check it yesterday and it had some oil at the top and it had too much play when I turned it. I got a reman from autozone along with a new rotor and pickup coil.