I think I've done something right for once.
 

I have not had the car for long but it has always seemed weak to me. Had the local PCA club vice-pres drive it and he confirmed this. Anyways I tried (replaced) almost everything; plugs,filters,O2 sensor,wires,cap,rotor. Didn't help. Today I was looking to see how my cap and rotor were holding up. Looked under and noticed a red powdery look to the inside of the distributer housing just under rotor. Thought I would clean this up with some electronic cleaner. There's these two lever-like arms inside held with small springs. They almost looked seized , wouldn't move at all. I sprayed liberally and with some pressure got them free. I cleaned and lubed them until smooth movement was possible. Then I took the car for a spin to see if there was a differenc and WOW. What a difference. The engine feels more eager and revs freely to redline. The front end actually raises when quickly accelerating. It always felt like it lost steam after 3600rpm and wasn't happy above 4500rpm.

I don't know what those lever things do (probably something to do with timing) but if you can shed some light on it so to have a better understanding. Also could this have adversly affected something else? I assume it's been like this for a long time.

I don't think I've got all the problems sorted but the cars got some balls now.

Joseph
'86 Turbo-look

Those must be the weights for the centrifugal timing advance, although I'm not positive an 86 would have that (I would guess the DME would handle timing advance, but maybe both electronic and centrifugal are combined?)

It sounds like the timing on the car was not properly advancing before you cleaned and lubricated what you found.

Olivier
82 SC

Poorsha--that red powder is known as red rust, iron oxide, jewelers rouge, etc. and is the result of unlubed steel rubbing on steel.
If you caught it in time, there probably was not any appreciable damage. It tends to just polish things and then bind them up. However if let go long enuf will eventually gall, enlarge holes, wear down pivots, etc. It's worth a check twice a year or so for some added lube.

George 86T

I was reading some past posts and now I'm worried about how I went about cleaning inside of distributor. Read something about sending dirt down into bearings of disrtibutor. There was alot of that red powder stuff and I guess it went down there somewhere.

Joseph
'86 Turbo-look

[This message has been edited by poorsche (edited 05-23-2001).]