[Walt Fricke]

I knew that from 1966 through 1977, the 911 distributors (at least for the USA motors) turned clockwise. My 2.7 did.

Then, for the 3.0s starting in 1978, the distributor rotated counterclockwise (and it's case diameter got larger, to accommodate the electronics which displaced the points).

What I didn't realize was that the 3.2s went back to clockwise rotation. Why did Porsche make these changes?

The 3.2 distributor cap fits right on the 3.0 distributor, and vice versa, and the rotors are the same. But why did Porsche change from the convenient two clips on the earlier distributors to the harder to manipulate system used on the 3.2s?

I became acquainted with these differences while measuring cam shafts in race cars at the track, which involves using a modified cap to hold a rotary indicator. The rotation direction was (due to the foresight of the wizard who designed the electronic data system in having a direction switch on the control box) easy to deal with, but getting the 3.2 distributor caps back on securely when checking was done was a whole lot more difficult than with the 3.0 clips.