For about the past 6 months now, the screw that holds the rotor on the distributor shaft has been spinning off. It would go a while, then fall off and the engine immediately dies or sputters a bit then dies.

 

This morning it did it on the way to work and when I tried to tighten it, it wouldn't tighten down. It went snug but if I went any further it would come loose again. I am thinking of using blue loctite to keep it in place but I am not sure if even that will work as I understand it, the threads must be intact for loctite to work well. I don't think the threads here are in very good condition.

 

Why Subaru didn't key the rotor is beyond me. Since the shaft is hollow, I am considering simply drilling two opposing holes in the rotor and shaft and using a cotter pin to hold the thing in place.

 

Does anyone see any obvious problems with doing this? I want a permanent (well semi permanent in that I want to be able to replace the rotor) fix as this is getting old with it failing at the most inopportune moments.

Check the threads on the screw; if damaged, replace the screw. Loctite MIGHT work but you will never know when it will fail. Better to fix it properly and be done with it.

find a disty from a turbo model as it will have a D shape shaft, and the rotor will turn without the screw, as long as it doesn't raise up off the shaft. plug and play disty, if the pigtail connector is different, the pigtail is swappable