glkiller Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Hello all!! Great Forum here! I've done my homework boys and girls, hours of reading, the threads on this issue are old and I got some smack for posting to old threads:) so here's as new as it gets. I have a 1983 gl 4wd Wagon, no turbo, Hitachi Carb, EA81 I've had 2 distys in this car, the stock one blew the vac advance, replaced with 1984 gl 4wd samo samo vac advance went out in that one too. I've seen posts for taking the vac valve out of the picture, I like that, hope I did it right, went to above throttle port (left one) straight to disty with hose (bypassed hard line) plugged bottom of vacuum valve, good... So I get a Beck/Arnley 1850255 REMAN DISTRIBUTOR , pull out the old disty noting rotor positioin and place the new one in correctly, not a single spark. Scratch my head wonder if I messed up, put old disty back in, car fires right up, put new disty back in and nothing. Here's the meat of it, I took the old disty not even in the engine and put the pickup coil wires on, turned the gear quickly by hand and got spark out of the coil wire to ground with the ignition key on. I tried the same with the new one and got nothing, tried AGAIN with the old one and got sparks (yay) NOW! I get online and read all I can find on this and I found something about the resistor on the mount for the coil. He said some distys use 10 some 12 volts. My car has stock coil and does have the resistor (ignition module?). I've used 2 distys on this car with zero problems but this one bites the big one. SO! Could it be that this disty does not require the resistor? I haven't tested coil voltages yet... Or did I just get punked by partsamerica (schucks, cragen blah blah blah) and get a disty with a bad pickup coil in it. Tested the leads in the disty after failure and there was no continuity. OR! Could it be that both of my old distys somehow were better grounded than this one? I did not test pickup leads to disty case. Should I take my own advice and put a ground wire on it? (see old thread posts) BTW I only got 20 to 22 degrees btdc at 3000+ rpms on the light wich tells me the vac advance is dead, with it working it should go to about 35, yes? Thanks to all who reply, I love subaroooos even more now that I've seen the people here so dedicated to the old beasties... feel like I might be with this thread, sorry if that's the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWet Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 The resistor (ballast or dropping resistor) is used to limit current in the coil circuit; the resistor was originally used in the points-type ignitions to limit burning/arcing of the points. Sometimes the resistor is incorporated in the coil, but usually it is separate so that it can be bypassed during engine cranking (when available voltage tend to be lower). The absence/presence of this resistor should not effect the old-vs-new testing that you did. My guess would go with a bad or incompatable new disty. Vacuum advance is not speed related, but vacuum (inverse-load) related. It should be greatest at idle (or in the case of emissions-style ported vacuum, just off of idle) and non-existant at WOT. To test if it were working, you would need either a vacuum pump to see the effect of changing levels of vacuum, or at your test's high-idle (3K) connect and disconnect the vacuum hose and see its effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glkiller Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 I have that power steering belt by my disty, will have to get hoses and a connector out away from there to do that test, could a bad vacuum valve cause vac advance vacuum to fail? It prob is the wrong disty or something stupid like that but they look identical, hmmm. Thanks for the quick reply!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWet Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Bad "vacuum valve"??? Not sure what this might be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glkiller Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 Bad "vacuum valve"??? Not sure what this might be. That thermo vacuum valve to the right of the carb that ties into the hard lines, giving it manifold vac at certain temps and ported vac at others (vice-versa?) Something like that? I' want rid of all things not needed and am working on stripping all crap from engine compartment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWet Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Ah!!! Forgot about that stuff. Yes, it could be. IIRC, its function is to provide ported vacuum once warmed up, and nothing when cold. Hmmmm... If it were me (I don't live in an emissions-testing area) I would just bypass that monkey-motion and go straight to manifold vacuum. I don't like to mess with emissions too much, but ported/controlled vacuum has always felt just wrong to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glkiller Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 Eeyore rocks:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWet Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Eeyore rocks:) "Thanks for noticing..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glkiller Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 From what I've read here, esp by General Disorder, going straight to the carb does very little harm, only advers during warm up. so I'm going with that, might just strip the whole intake of all stuff like that save fuel in out disty advance and MAYBE the Air control valve, if it's used in altitude compensation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glkiller Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 I would like to hear what the Junkie and GD think of this, they seem to have done it all... Thank you for your replies!!! From what I've read the ACV actually just puts fresh air in the exaust so I think I can eliminate that. My exhaust is shot and has been backfiring for awhile now, haven't done the quarter trick yet, (but oh I will) Anyone got an extra EGR cover? Aluminum near the Central oregon area? No question= no answer right? I can buck up for some metal if i have too:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Air Suction Valve - eliminate it. You can use quarters if you don't have a welder around. Probably the source of your backfires, or at least agrivating them. The EGR. Here's what you do - go to the junk yard and get an EGR off an EA82 with fuel injection (throttle body SPFI style) it will bolt on and does not have the anti-afterburn port on it. As long as you don't hook it up, it will function as a cheap block off plate. Or you can hook it to late ported vacuum from the carb and it will function as it should. Either way is fine. Do the two distributors look the same inside? I warn against using the wrong brand with the wrong brand of coil as it could cause damage down the line, but they *will* run without apparent problem. You are correct on the timing setting - just line up TDC of #1, and then point the rotor at #1 on the cap. You can actually point it at any of the 4 cap posts, just as long as you hook the wires up correctly. There are 4 correct distributor oreintations. Here's the address of the place I use for rebuilding: www.philbingroup.com Oh - and the "resistor" (it's a capacitor, but I know what you are talking about - little silver metal cannistor with a black wire to the coil and to ground). On the EA81's, it's just a "noise reducer" to prevent radio interferance. Totally obsolete part as most new radio's you will find have their own noise reduction electronics. Don't worry about it. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glkiller Posted September 24, 2006 Author Share Posted September 24, 2006 thanks GD! So I should just return the pos beck disty and get my old one fixed up eh? Bummer as the countdown to snow is on... But I will do as I should and stop fighting this darn thing... Thanks for the link and all the help!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 thanks GD! So I should just return the pos beck disty and get my old one fixed up eh? Bummer as the countdown to snow is on... But I will do as I should and stop fighting this darn thing... Thanks for the link and all the help!!!! Will probably save you money anyway. What brand distributor do you need? I may have one for you..... GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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