Technical > Electrical systems

Rebuilding a 280zx Electronic Distributor

(1/4) > >>

gav240z:
Hi Everyone,
I found this article and thought it would be a good start for anyone looking to rebuild their distributor.

http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/distributor/distributor.html

Also found this article on replacing the E12 module (since these give up the ghost and are expensive to replace) with cheaper readily available GM parts.
http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/gmhei.html

If someone can document a full distributor rebuild I'll make it a sticky instead of this, but for now this should do.

sexual_sushi:
I'm about to do 2 so I'll document them but I'm pretty much just following tutorials from other sites like the one you listed and this one:
http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

gav240z:

--- Quote from: sexual_sushi on September 01, 2010, 06:20:42 AM ---I'm about to do 2 so I'll document them but I'm pretty much just following tutorials from other sites like the one you listed and this one:
http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

--- End quote ---

Even better, that is a great tutorial. Very detailed photos and explanations. The 1 thing I still don't understand is the role of the ball bearings. I recall when I rebuilt mine (with some help) that we welded it together so it wouldn't rotate anymore. I'm not sure what effect this has on the way the distributor works?

Also we disabled the vacuum advance because the diaphram's were stuffed and we couldn't find 1 that worked.

Also the plate in the distributor where the weights attach to, if you modify it like with a dremmel piece you can get more advance. Various Datsun's and their distributors have different plates, weights and springs. You can mix and match to get the desired amount of mechnical advance you want. We did this with my distributor and it made an amazing difference in the way the car behaved - I couldn't believe what an animal it became :).

So my tips are:
Go to a junk yard, find as many different types of L-series distributors as you can (4 and 6 cyl versions) and pull them apart for their weights and advance plates. Mix and match to get desired advance. Unfortunately at this stage I can't give advise on what weights to use or what plates and their numbers, but I'm sure if you experiment a bit and use a timing light you can find out what kind of advance you are getting.

peter mc:
hi i have found most L engines that i tune on the dyno like 14 deg initial advance and 28 deg total  more timing hurts power in most  hope this helps

sexual_sushi:

--- Quote ---the 1 thing I still don't understand is the role of the ball bearings.
--- End quote ---

Please take anything I say with a grain of salt as I am just learning about dizzys. Hence why I want to rebuild the ones I have so I can know more about them.

I believe this is part of the vacuum(?) advance. The suction that pulls on the diaphram pulls an arm attached to the breakerplate assembly. The bearings allow the breaker plate to rotate giving you your advance?

I read of a guy who made his own housing for the bearings (the brittle plastic part that always breaks) and he said the differences in tolerances had an affect on how easily the plate rotated which changed the amount of advance it gave. This could be a good or a bad thing I suppose.

So you can play with the mechanical advance by adding/subtracting weight. Apparently the difference in the weights that came with the dizzys was from the manual to auto cars. 8.5 was stamped on the weights that came in the manual cars and 9 was stamped on the autos. (The one infront of me atm has 8.5)

For the vacuum advance, apparently you can adjust the vacuum arm range with a screw. Apparently this differed for different years and I believe the actual size of the dashpot also changed throughout the years.

I suppose all of this means you need to know exactly what your advance is currently doing and what you want it to be doing!

I'm sure there are a few guys on here that know a lot about dizzy's so feel free to correct anything :)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page