and won't restart. Was heading home when it died, thankfully right next to a circle k. Tried to resart, but it keeps backfiring. Poped the t-belt covers off and the cams are still in sync with the crank. However, the ditsy is off by a clyinder! At TDC of the compression stroke of cyl 1, the dtsy is pointing at cyl 3! What gives?

Also, tach was jumpy and my low rpm torque was not there about a day before this mess happend. I am going to replace the ditsy and see if that fixes it, since everything seems to be pointing in that direction.

Sounds like its time for a new (or slightly used ) dizzy.

 

Classic signs were the jumpy tach and poping exhuast (due to the timing being WAY off)

Sounds like you ripped the gear from the disty shaft - that's about the only way it could be off the way you say it is. That's not good. I hope for your sake the gear comes out when you pull the disty. Just a guess, but bad bushings in the disty probably either caused the disty to bind and the cam sheared the pin on the gear, or the magnetic pickup smashed into the rotor on the shaft and jammed it resulting in the same thing - sheared pin on the gear.

 

When you get it out of there, check the condition of the gear teeth on the cam as well - might have ripped those up too. Hard to tell.

 

GD

worse than that. The gear on the camshaft that drives the ditsy is worn. Ditsy is fine; no play at all. The mech advance seems a little loose, but it feels ok. However, when I pulled the ditsy out, I found metal shavings on the ditsy shaft and there is a small pile on the bottom of the cam case. The gear on the camshaft is shot. Badly worn down. That cam side has always made a funny noise ever since I've had the car; about five years. Guess that's Y, eh?

So, if that's so, I guess the best thing is to pull the engine out and completely tear it apart and clean the the metal shavings out, yes? Last oil change showed no metal shavings (about two months ago).

Yanking the cam housing once you get the valve cover really isnt all THAT hard... should be 10 bolts I belive on the disty side.. maybe 9. May be ideal just to replace the cam and housing as a complete unit from someones parts engine.

ok. Can I do that without taking the engine out? Also, could those metal shavings have gotten into he rest of the engine?

Those gears run in oil, so the whole engine is suspect I would say. Although you have to wonder why that gear wore out - lack of oil perhaps? Maybe it you'll get lucky. I wouldn't put another cam in ther till I figured out why it failed. Sounds like lack of lubrication - bad oil pressure? Clogged oil supply lines?

 

GD

She runs just under the 45 mark at 3k rpms when up to temp and just above the 0 line when idling. hummm.....back a few years ago, when I was young and stpid, I lost the oil pump and ran without oil pressure for about 5 miles. Wonder if that did it in?

Stange thing is the ditsy gear looks fine. No worn spots or anything.

Boy, what a bummer. And I just put some aluminum wheels on too.