Like the title says. The color in the picture is close to what it really is. The car runs.

 

Does anybody know what causes this?

 

mkoch

bad bearing/bushing.

 

Is there any side-side play in the shaft?

 

Red dust is a sign the spark is jumping to ground inside the distributor.

The red dust is iron oxidized by the arc.

 

I`ve seen this in GM distys.

hi

+1 naru, i have seen this lots of times , it can be cleaned from the metal parts of the dist with care, but probably time for new cap & rotor .

bad bearing/bushing.

 

Is there any side-side play in the shaft?

 

 

...sigh... yes...

 

I should have checked that instead of just looking at the thing.

 

The only reason I saw the dust was my son wanted to know what a "rotor arm" was. He read about it in a book. I showed him the one on the Subaru.

 

Thanks for the response. It looks like I'll have to buy a whole new distributor.