Itinerant Air-Cooled

Can you disassemble a stock Hall's ignition distributor on a stock 79 CA bus without taking it out of the engine? I understand if may be easier to do so if it is taken out. However, I am trying to minimize the bus' exposure to my mechanical bad luck. I want to look inside at the mechanical weights and clean what I can, reassemble and see if I can get the mechanical advance to work. I believe my vacuum advance is working fine, but I do not think the mechanical is advancing at all.

If it can not be done then I will bite the leather strap and pull it after being placed at TDC. Thanks for your input. Hope I put this in the right category.

Jack

jackstar wrote:Can you disassemble a stock Hall's ignition distributor on a stock 79 CA bus without taking it out of the engine? I understand if may be easier to do so if it is taken out. However, I am trying to minimize the bus' exposure to my mechanical bad luck. I want to look inside at the mechanical weights and clean what I can, reassemble and see if I can get the mechanical advance to work. I believe my vacuum advance is working fine, but I do not think the mechanical is advancing at all.

If it can not be done then I will bite the leather strap and pull it after being placed at TDC. Thanks for your input. Hope I put this in the right category.

Jack

I strongly recommend that you pull the entire distributor. It is very easy to do. Index both the location of the rotor inside the distributor cap and the location of the distributor body against the engine, loosen the 10mm clamp nut (that long hex bar deal) a lot, then twist and pull out of the engine.

The little screws used to hold things together on the distributor do not want to fall free inside the engine area.
Colin

Not to sound too dense......By indexing you mean to mark the rotor position on the rim of the distributor itself and mark the body of the distributor (such as with a line) as it sits in the engine so that the body of the distributor is put back in the same relative spot as when it was taken out? Correct?? I'll take another look at Bentley's and other posts before I pull it. Thanks Colin.

Jack

If it were me, I would get the engine to TDC (using the timing scale and the notch in the fan pulley) almost ready for #1 cylinder to fire (by looking at the rotor position). If you feel the need, put a sharpie index line on the clamp and the distributor.

Then just remove the 8mm nut (with the 13mm head) that holds the distributor clamp to the engine case. In a perfect world it would then just pull out (straight up). Sometimes you have to wiggle it a bit if it has not been out lately.

As well as owning a tube of Bosch distributor grease for relubication, having a new distributor O-ring would be nice to have prior to re-insalling it. That is actually one of the few things the VW dealer still has for us.

Have a good look (and clean up the electrical connection) at that where that cable mounts (from the distributor to the igniton module). They like to chafe sometimes.

Randy,

Thanks for the quick reply. Your description is just what I read/figured. It is just nice to hear someone agree with you before you try something new. On your rotator, is that the Bosch lube or just the lighting? Thanks.

jackstar wrote: On your rotator, is that the Bosch lube or just the lighting? Thanks.

The r-o-t-o-r is dry and must remain dry as must the inside of the distributor cap.
Colin

Sorry, need more coffee. Or glasses. Or a clue.