I just replaced the old distributor with one I rebuilt, and the whole process was ridiculously easy, got the gear on the right tooth, car started right up, and timing was only off two degrees before I fixed it. Test drive was great, much smoother than it's ever been.

My question is with the old distributor: There is some oil in the pickup coil, that appears to have worked it's way up the shaft and pooled in there. Is the shaft shot? The old one I rebuilt didn't appear to have this problem. I was hoping to rebuild this one too, and keep it as a spare.

Also, the old distributor o-ring was SHOT. Probably only a few months away from leaking like a sieve.

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1984 Fiero SE

Was the O-ring the reason for the oil soaked pick up? Should just be able to replace the pickup coil and rebuild the rest. I don't think anything is hurt if there is no physical damage to the shaft.

The PVC system is supposed to keep the crankcase at a slight negative pressure. If there were leakage at the dist, it should flow in, not out. If your rings are quite bad, and you have a lot of blow by, you could create a positive pressure in the crankcase, pushing oil up the distributor shaft. This however isn't a failure of the shaft.

The oil that the o-ring keeps from spilling on the engine isn't in the crankcase but instead a oil passage in the block.

The worry about a worn dist shaft is that it will let the rotor/pick up coil reluctor flop around and give you inaccurate timing. You should check your shaft for lateral play when rebuilding a distributor

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: The PVC system is supposed to keep the crankcase at a slight negative pressure. If there were leakage at the dist, it should flow in, not out. If your rings are quite bad, and you have a lot of blow by, you could create a positive pressure in the crankcase, pushing oil up the distributor shaft. This however isn't a failure of the shaft.

The rings in the old engine were shot, and that engine spun a rod bearing. The distributor from the old engine was used in this one. The oil wasn't fresh, but old and dried out like it had been there a while, so it was probably left over from back then?

No lateral play in either, stay nice and centered. Also no end play, since it has that spring mechanism.

Yeah that sounds like a reasonable explaination of how it got there. My guess is you will glance at it once in a while just to make sure it's not happening again.

Axial play in the shaft can be delt with, with washers, the spring ect. Lateral play usually means replacement. Sometimes rebuilders will knurl the shaft to cause parts of the shaft to raise above the surface to 'fix' the shaft. Of course those points will wear out even quicker and your dist would get sloppy fast.