Sup everyone, and cruiser all I have to do is throw renix in the title and hes there Haha. I'm replacing my distributor on my 89 sport after an 800 mile roadtrip to mojave for some badass wheeling. On the highway legs of the trip there were some funky misfire issues and my oil was leaking pretty bad but that's un related. SO on to the steps.



How do I know its the distributor you ask? I don't, but now its making a noise, and I've noticed that noises are not good. SO



Went to picknpull and found a 90 xj with a small lift, ****ty paintjob and a bent rear ds. Not exactly a good reason to throw it out if you ask me but ok. Cap looks new but the dizzy doesn't, but that's also ok because the teeth look good.

Now when I pulled it, I knew that marking its position and finding tdc of the first piston would be impossible (no keys and such plus i didnt know how to until last night) so I marked the side that was closest to the engine. I read online a bunch and Cruisers write-up and the haynes manual and blah blah here's what I got.

Remove first spark plug, rotate crankshaft to align v notch with 0 mark on the timing cover with thumb over spark hole feel for pressure or rotate another 360° or turn it over till the rotor points to the first piston wire connection on the cap. Mark the location of the rotor. Remove distributor. DONT TOUCH CRANKSHAFT.

Now, because I have a new (to me) distributor that has no mark, and the shaft has been rotated (oops)

is it safe to say that I could just remove the cap, and line up the rotor with the first piston terminal then toss it back in? While aligning it with the oil pump and compensating for the natural rotation as the gears seat?

I'm going to go get a new gasket for it before I start, I just wanted feedback to make sure I'm doing it right.

Thanks in advance! Don't go easy on me, if I do something wrong. Please point it out. Learning from mistakes and whatnot

 

Till cruiser shows up...just be aware that all the diagrams are wrong.., #1 is at 5:00 as viewed from the side. (then 153624 clockwise).

 

Ill go through with a sharpie and mark em on the new cap, thanks!

 

Ok so I've got my gasket, and the wires and new cap marked. Here's the internals of the old cap. I'm guessing I want the red plastic guy pointed to the first piston contact, correct?

 

Have you pulled it yet or is it still in this position ?

 

Heeeeelllllllllooooo

 

Pulled it, I can put it back though I marked the position it last rotated from before it came out

 

Whoa whoa sorry, I rotated the crankshaft till the center of the arch was in line with my first piston mark

 

Then I pulled it

 

You got the right idea go for it your most likely gonna need flash light and long screw driver to turn pump shaft some they rarely drop right back in with out fiddeling with it

 

Good stuff thanks, I'm also cleaning all the contacts and doing a bit of dielectric grease in em. The old dizzy is much harder to turn than the newer one, hopefully this ends the squeak

 

got any brake clean spray some where gear on bottom contacts distr housing most likely dried oil in housing .dont let it get on plastics .

 

Looked alright to me. It would purr like a jackrabbit on cocaine if it didn't go back in right? (That means it'll run like snot) I got him all sinched up and its running just fine no squeak.

 

koool

 

Our dizzy was squealing/howling like a banshee on cold morning start-ups. Only problem was we could have sworn the noise was from the alternator (not), then we thought it was the fan clutch (not), then we figured it must be the fan bearing hub in the a/c bracket (not). Got the old dizzy out and couldn't believe how hard it was to turn by hand. All's quiet now with the new dizzy but dayum, talk about an expensive weekend.