911 owners, Who has looked at the Mechanical Advance in their DISTRIBUTOR?

[Vincent Hill]

You may be in for a Surprise. It takes a Ball head ALlen wrench and External Snap Ring Plyers (and some PB Blaster) to remove the Coil Plate in the Dist but it is well worth the effort.

The only tricky part is the tiny Pin that locks the metal rotator to the SHaft after you remove the snap ring. (SO work over a large clean area) so you do not lose this part.

WHen I removed mine I saw a LOT of rusty looking accumulation on the sides of the Dist. About 1/2 can of Brake Cleaner later, I was finally getting clean wash.

The Weights were frozen in place and then it took a lot of PB Blaster and WD 40 before they were freed up and working / Snapping in place from the springs. I then sprayed Tri Flow (Teflon impregnated oil) over everything and put it back together.

Now I know why I had to make my own timing mark before it started to knock. WHen finished, the car knocked immediately on a less retarded setting. It took 5 adjustments before I was able to stop the knocking. I will bet that when I put the timing light on it now that it will show pretty close to the original timing marks.

I would suggest to anyone that has not heard their knock in a long time to either advance their timing a little to see if it will Knock and if it does not then I would strongly suggest cleaning out your Dist or simply clean and lube it to begin with.

Now I have a smooth Idle and it accels very well.

[E Sully]

It was one of the first things I did when I purchased a 3.2 engine.

[Vincent Hill]

"WOW"!!

This is my first for seeing a 3.2 Dist. Yours is easy to spot. The 3.0 has an entire Layer of Stator Coil and Rotor "Over" the Weights and you Must take it apart to see them. There may be some things more difficult in a 3.2 but the Dist is for sure not one of them!

[Flieger]

I thought the 3.2 had no mechanical advance. It was locked and the Motronic took care of the advance?

[jpnovak]

The timing is fixed due to the crank (flywheel trigger and reference). The mechanical advance is retained for rotor phasing to maintain alignment between the rotor tip and the dist. cap during electronic timing advance.

The mechanical advance mechanisms are one of the most overlooked systems in our older 911s. Timing is critical to good performance and a lot of cars suffer from poor performance due to this easily cleaned part.

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by jpnovak

The timing is fixed due to the crank (flywheel trigger and reference). The mechanical advance is retained for rotor phasing to maintain alignment between the rotor tip and the dist. cap during electronic timing advance.

The mechanical advance mechanisms are one of the most overlooked systems in our older 911s. Timing is critical to good performance and a lot of cars suffer from poor performance due to this easily cleaned part.

I agree with everything you said except for "Easily" Cleaned part. The SC Dist takes some doing to get to the weights which is most likely the reason they are not serviced let along never seen. For a "Know a Lot" (Had to give up my Know it all title) it was actually embarassing for me to see what I had over looked and NEVER Thought about.

[euro911sc]

Been there done that. Be really careful of the little plastic parts though as they are not replaceable!! You should also look at the springs on the weights. Make sure they both look the same. If not then you may have differing spring load on the weights modifying your curve. I slathered mine in a skim coat of marine bearing grease

[bourgeois911]

Here's the link I used when I guted mine.
Distributor service (Clean and lube) real easy without removing the pinion gear!

[Gunter]

Originally Posted by jpnovak

The timing is fixed due to the crank (flywheel trigger and reference). The mechanical advance is retained for rotor phasing to maintain alignment between the rotor tip and the dist. cap during electronic timing advance.

The mechanical advance mechanisms are one of the most overlooked systems in our older 911s. Timing is critical to good performance and a lot of cars suffer from poor performance due to this easily cleaned part.

Amen, how true.

Originally Posted by euro911sc

Been there done that. Be really careful of the little plastic parts though as they are not replaceable!! You should also look at the springs on the weights. Make sure they both look the same. If not then you may have differing spring load on the weights modifying your curve. I slathered mine in a skim coat of marine bearing grease

AFAIK, the small springs are slightly different from each other and so are the weights to give a different advance at different RPM's.

Originally Posted by bourgeois911

Here's the link I used when I gutted mine.

Distributor service (Clean and lube) real easy without removing the pinion gear!

Thank you.

[Vincent Hill]

Originally Posted by Gunter

Amen, how true.



AFAIK, the small springs are slightly different from each other and so are the weights to give a different advance at different RPM's.



Thank you.

Gunter, I "LOOKED " using the Search before I posted my thread because what you wrote is "EXACTLY" what I wanted to let everyone know! You are 100% correct in everything you said and I did not think to use Marine Grease but have that in mind for a refference. No one can believe how the Idle is smoother when you are not Idling at full Advance or totally retarded at Peak RPM>

I would suggest everyone to read your thread specially about having a place to do this work and a plastic Bag to hold everything., I used several to keep some things separate The only suggestion I have to add is to use a large piece of Clear Tape to put that small Location Pin in to keep from losing it.