...and rotor button and distributor caps...

I've got a 375 '69 396 with around 98K on it. It's all stock. I probably put around 140 miles on it...on average...per month.

The thing is that over the years I've owned it, it goes through points, rotor cap, and dist caps every 400 miles or so :confused: Other than that, it runs great. The plugs and wires are usually "good" for 2K or so [and then I probably could just clean 'em up a bit and reuse...but, I replace anyway].

When I tune-up I always set everything to stock specs.

Any ideas as to why I go through the hardware so fast? Any ideas as to what to do to solve this? I guess it's not really a problem.....I just wonder what's going on?

Thanks,

Mike O'H

My pal had a similar problem where the original distributor shaft guide and shaft itself was worn from years of driving. The rotor would wobble at speed and beat up the inside of the cap's contacts and cause all sorts of weird engine problems. The car would never stay in timing, and the timing gun would show the timing marks jumping all over the place as the engine was revved up. We removed the cap and noticed that the shaft would wiggle freely in a few millimeters in any o'clock direction. Replacing the whole distributor solved the problem.

As for points, all I can think of is that the voltage regulator may be bad if it's pitting the point contact pads one way or the other.

I'm hardly the most useful person available here to help you determine the problem.

Make sure that your voltage to your coil is less than 12 volts. Older point type distributors have a resistance wire built into the harness which drops the voltage to the coil. I have seen points burne up due to this wire being removed and not replaced with the correct wire. Just a thought

Joe

It would probably be a good idea to have your dist rebuilt as it is probably worn. I recommend Dave Ray in Whittier California, he can also convert it to HEI while he rebuilds it. His website is www.davessmallbodyheis.com (http://www.davessmallbodyheis.com) Give it a look. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Mike I ran into this same problem a few years ago on a customers Chevy truck. The complaint was a noticable loss of low end power and frequent changes of rotors, caps and points. After checking out the igition system I found the wires on the coil were backwards. After putting them on the right terminals the customer was real happy.
Click on the link Leo provided you and check out Daves conversions if you want to do away with points and have a great distributer upgrade.

You should always change the condensor when you change the points. Points will burn up fast if the condencer is bad. Dave

I second that on the condensor being bad,,been there.

Yes, a bad condensor will sure eat the points. Could possibly damage the rotor and cap too. Hard to say without looking at the cap though. If it looks burnt, then I would suspect a bad condensor, but if it's mechanical wear, I'd say it would be worn shaft and bushings.

Guys,

I thought I would drop a follow-up line to say thanks! ...and that I believe that I got it figured out graemlins/hurray.gif . Time will tell for sure.

To make a long story short, after Dave Ray dropped me a line or two to my e:mail on the subject, it got me checking into the wires inside the Distributor. Turns out, the wire from the points to the coil was damaged is 3 places. The worst was a bit of the insulation was missing from about this [____] much of the wire....just below the base of the Dist. I'm pretty sure that one or all of these "cuts" were causing the thing to short out from time to time.

Long term fix will be to replace the wire or perhaps to have Mr Ray build me one of his items; however, for now, I didn't want to remove the dist so I cleaned the damaged areas and wraped electrical tape over 'em. I also replaced the terminal where the wire hooks to the coil.

The car runs great now....better than ever :D ! No cutting out under a load or high revs :D

If anyone else has a similar problem in the future, we can add "check out the coil wire" to the list of things to look at ;)

Again, thanks! You guys and this site are great. It's like having the days back when you and your buddies would just sit around on the weekends and talk about what was going on with your cars.... Those days seem to be gone and with them all that info sharing that took place without you giving it much thought!

Mike O'H