twsnagel

OK - so just set my meter to AC and put it on the posts of the battery? What voltage of AC should I set it to? 12V-ish? And I'm guessing the closer to 0 that it reads the better? At what level would I read that the alternator is bad? I only get the bouncy tach thing sometimes - particularly when the engine is changing RPM. Other times it settles down and runs fine.

Good advice, I took the cap off last night and yanked back and forth on the shaft. There is NO play at all! I would have guessed that I should be able to feel some play if the disty is bad. This is the first car that I've had with a mechanical distributor. There was a little pitting on the rotor and corrosion on the contacts inside the cap. I did a little cleanup on them to shiny them up, and if anything, the engine is a little worse. I'm guessing the distributor cap and rotor need replacing. I went to autozone, and they had a number of different distributors listed for my make and year. The rotor I ended up with didn't even fit in the enclosure. Any easy way to get around this, and figure out which one fits my car? Or is it just guess and check? Also, how do I check my alternator diode? Thanks for all the help; you guys rock! Tyler

I've got a 1985 2WD GL wagon, 1.8L. I've got the bouncy-tach issue and suspect a failing distributor. Will the distributor from a 1982 GL 4x4 work for me? I've got a line on one in the for-sale forum. Thanks for any input! Here's the link to the post in the used forum. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=690475&postcount=19