I was driving my EA82 1987 GL (Weber carb) today, and all of a sudden, the tach needle went all haywire, started reading 4-5k rpm (even though the engine was still at about 2k). On top of that, the timing was all screwy, and the car pinged badly under load.

 

Less than a minute later, the issue was gone, and only came back later in the day, under hard acceleration. Again, only for a minute. The car is running a bit hot, but is not overheating or anything (need to replace the radiator, I think). I was thinking that this could be the coil, but the tach is connected to the distributor, not the coil. 

 

Do I need a new distributor or something?

Not the Distributor itself, but maybe the Ignition Module is saying Goodbye...

 

However, I kindly suggest you to Disconnect the Battery,

 

and check the Distributor's Wirings, maybe it has a loose one.

 

Good Luck!

Kind Regards.

I was driving my EA82 1987 GL (Weber carb) today, and all of a sudden, the tach needle went all haywire, started reading 4-5k rpm (even though the engine was still at about 2k). On top of that, the timing was all screwy, and the car pinged badly under load.

 

Less than a minute later, the issue was gone, and only came back later in the day, under hard acceleration. Again, only for a minute. The car is running a bit hot, but is not overheating or anything (need to replace the radiator, I think). I was thinking that this could be the coil, but the tach is connected to the distributor, not the coil. 

 

Do I need a new distributor or something?

 

Probably.

Take the cap off and check for side play in the shaft.

Anything more than barely detectible is too much,

Common problem.

Thanks, all! 

I had the same problem. Ended up being my distributor. .