How to set air gap on 280zx dizzy

[ol_skl_jp]

Hey all, bit stumped by this.

My current gap looks like this.

 

It should look this this.

 

The atlanticz walk through of the rebuild doesnt mention how to adjust the gap, just says "The stator must be repostioned so that the reluctor's tips are all the same distance from the stator tips when rotated." Her is the URL for the write-up http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

 

If anyone can shed any light on this it would be fantastic.

 

Cheers

 

[gav240z]

Hi mate,

Really testing my memory on this, those screws on the outer perimeter allow you to adjust the gap between all sides. Just loosen them all and see if you can rotate it so that all gaps are even.

 

You may find that the distributor shaft is worn and loose and therefore no matter how much adjustment you do the dizzy will arc out.

 

When the distributor touches those points it archs out so if your car is running with them touching you will be getting slight misfire. You can probably hear it at idle doing it, its a slight sputter.

 

Best of luck, if you do start pulling the distributor apart be sure to mark everything!!!! with some kind of permanent marker.

[ol_skl_jp]

Yer Gav thats what i thought to, but it doesn't budge. i don't know if its meant to rotate or not.

[modular9]

Had exactly the same problem on mine.

Here is what i did. ( it might not be right and it might not be correct BUT it did fix my prob )

 

I undid the philips  mounting screws ( not the ones on top of the stator/rotor/doodad ) to allow for movement ( didnt take them fully out ).

 

Then I found the small little ball bearing that governed the movement back and forth ( and I think you have one I marked it on the uploaded image ). The auto electrician i was talking to told me to take it out but that pushed the rotor assembly over to the one side and I saw dollar signs light up in his eyes. Guess what i did.

 

Then i moved the little ball around towards the gold looking philips screw which had the effect of making the rotor assembly push to the center. What made the same gap for all on the stator/rotor/starlooking thing . ( actually there was a 0.010 mm difference but meh ).

 

Then carefully tightened everything up to spec.

 

Caveat. Not sure if this ball bearing I am talking about is a standard thing or something the previous owner or whoever put in there to sort the problem .It has sorted the problem though.

 

Gav : Way off topic but is there a way of turning on "notify me of replies " automatically ? I only see it when i attach files and I dont always do that!

[ZED660]

Here is another site with an article about rebuilding your dizzy which you may not have seen.  Clicking on the blue highlighted sections opens a photograph.

 

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

[modular9]

zed660 : thanks for the link. I know it was for ol_skl_jp but i found another idea on the old " tacho not working after 280zx dizzy upgrade ".

[ol_skl_jp]

Modular9 - I couldn't set the correct gap, what you have circled is a notch in the breaker plate, its use is still unknown to me. The ball bearing you used is also part of the breaker plate, my one is totally shartted. Dont know where two of the three balls are, so need to replace it. Igot this image from the atlantic z website

 

Zed660 - Thanks for the site, it didnt really go into detail about the setting of the gap, must be a real basic thing, argh why cant i get it !!!

 

The car is running fine (i think). The whole reason i took the dizzy apart was because the auto elec i went to see yesterday said he cant re-graph it because it needs to be serviced first, wanted alot of $$$ to do it aswell, so me being a DIY sorta guy had a crack at it not to difficult its just this freakin' gap i cant sort out. I think i will leave it for now, but did want to get it done before i finalised my carbs (hopefully this Saturday).

 

Anyways thanks for the input fellas. Much obliged

 

Cheers

Sach