OT - vehicle thank you

Might have been on this list. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned my work van didn't start for a hoot. Someone suggested that might be a bad cap and rotor on the distributor. I wasn't sure, thinking it was more likely to be bad spark plug wires.

Anyhow, four or so people said cap and rotor, so I decided to change the cap and rotor. A friend suggested that I buy the good one with the brass contacts, (Napa Eschelin) not the cheap one with the aluminum contacts. I did that. Wonders, the cap and rotor went in (one screw was rotted, and had to grind it off). Now the van starts much easier.

I'm hoping that helped restore some of the fuel mileage, which is near to nothing now. Might also be able to go back to 87 octane instead of expensive premium.

Thank you for the wisdom. It's not home repair, but it sure was kind and helpful.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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I thought you were driving a convertible for James Dean or Bogey...or something?

Reply to
Bob_Villa

Oh, you mean JFK and Marilyn? That's my night job. I drive a tradesman van in the day.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I've noticed that high mileage engines (over 150,000 miles) often start using caps and rotors much faster than expected. I suspect that this is due to wear in the distributer shaft and bearings, allowing the rotor to wobble, thus prematurely wearing the cap and rotor.

My trashy 93 Taurus with 200k needs a new cap and rotor every 10,000 miles or so, sometimes less. I do buy the better caps and rotors, they last a little longer than the cheap crap.

Reply to
Tony Sivori

I chose to remember my heroes in a better light...you should try it!

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Reply to
Bob_Villa

Hi, Also today's ignition voltage is higher than old days. I haven't touched those parts in years. Our oldest vehicle is 2006.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I'd not noticed that. But, who can tell? Sure sounds reasonable, from here.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I don't even have the parts to touch on the Toyota. When I bought the car I popped the hood to make sure the oil filter and so forth were accessible, and sort of assumed the ignition system was under the plastic shroud on top of the engine. Snooping around after I got it home, I found little individual coils on each plug and a complete lack of the rest of the stuff.

It works and works well and I'll be in deep shit if it stops working, but given the typical longevity of Toyotas it will out live me if I don't get run over by another snow plow.

Reply to
rbowman

Weirdest car I ever had was an Audi. About every 15,000 miles it needed a set of plug wires. No noticeable problems until it decided it wanted new wires and wouldn't start. I always carried a spare set. It was the early days of onboard computers and I assumed it did a preflight inspection, decided the wires were out of spec, and sulked.

That was the least of its problems. I parked next to an Audi TT today and all I can say is "You've come a long way, baby."

Reply to
rbowman

There is an intentional gap between the "pointer" on the rotor and the

4/6/8 contacts on the cap. Wobble should only effect the center contact from the coil.

The gap serves to require some minimum voltage to jump it thus giving you a higher voltage to arc the plug. Could be something else in the engine is making the spark plug harder to fire, eroding the distributor gap elements when it finally does fire. The last is just a wild guess.

Reply to
Winston_Smith

My six cylinder Jeep has three of them. From the schematic, it looks like each end of the HV winding goes to one plug. I can only assume the "other one" is firing too at a time when it doesn't matter. Top of the compression stroke should be top of the exhaust stroke.

My cam shaft sensor went south a couple months ago. It's a magnet and hall-sensor blob that feeds the computer. It just has two screws to hold it on the bottom half and that looks exactly like the bottom half of a conventional distributor and fits in the same hole in the block.

Surfing around to learn about it, I discovered if it gets too weird or if you disconnect it, the computer will fake it from the crankshaft position sensor good enough to drive to a repair shop.

Reply to
Winston_Smith

And a Batmobile by night?

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

Harley's done that for close to a century. A few hundred bucks and you can convert it to single fire and might maybe pick up a horse or two. It's one of those 'in theory' things.

Reply to
rbowman

Only after I get out of the batroom, at 2 AM. Can't make it through the night like I used to.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I had a '93 Eagle Vision TSi that would eat a set of wires every year, until I figured out what was going wrong. The problem is that the wires were expensive (~$100) and, if I went to a garage, 4.5 hours labor. They are laced under the intake manifolds and the injectors were supposed to be pulled, as well. I figured out how to do it in about 45 minutes (I'm sure the mechanics did, too, but it was still

4.5 hours labor). Turned out the label on the engine was printed wrong. The label said the gap should be see to .062". The engine specs said .035". Big difference.

Audis have always been a problem. No thanks.

Reply to
krw

One thing hasn't changed though. If you have to ask what it costs, you cannot afford it.

Reply to
clare

iirc, the 100 LS wasn't that exorbitant. I'd originally went in to look at the Porsche 914, decided it was uncomfortable, and wound up with the Audi. The 914 wouldn't have been any better; those weren't happy years for VW/Porsche.

In it's defense, nobody had seen the oil embargo and the heavily enforced 55 mph speed limit and the car just wasn't geared to do 55 happily. I wasn't geared to do 55 either but the cops were taking it seriously for a while.

Reply to
rbowman

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