'80 CJ 304 distributor doesn't look right

[DHugg]

The vacuum advance on the Duraspark dissy on my AMC 304 was so stiff I couldn't apply enough vacuum to move the advance plate. I pulled the cover, planning to disassemble, clean and grease the sliding plates, and inside I can see what looks like a wire terminal that isn't screwed down to anything. In the second photo, I can see a screw head on the right of the wire bundle that looks to be the perfect mate for the screw terminal if the terminal piece were only flipped 180 degrees.

If any one you folks have already seen this condition, I'd be really glad to know how or why that green wire of the three coming out of the dissy isn't connected. I know this engine has been gone over long before I got it in 2009; the air system is gone and air injection ports are blinded off. Unfortunately, don't know where else those busy little fingers visited or what else they might have done!

 

[DHugg]

Re: '80 CJ 304 distributor doesn't look right, but does now!

After a lot of 'Net searching, I found a photo that solved the mystery. If I shovel out the dirt from the dissy, I'll be able to see the other half of the either-way connector, like the attached pic shows.

 

[Hedgehog]

Re: '80 CJ 304 distributor doesn't look right, but does now!

Great use of the net, I find Google Image search to be invaluable for problems like this. ......... So, exactly how long was your AMC 304 engine under water, in a swamp .... a really muddy swamp? It is amazing the thing still works at all. If it works in this condition, just think how it will work when clean.

 

[DHugg]

Re: '80 CJ 304 distributor doesn't look right, but does now!

Great use of the net, I find Google Image search to be invaluable for problems like this. ......... So, exactly how long was your 304 engine under water, in a swamp .... a really muddy swamp? It is amazing the thing still works at all. If it works in this condition, just think how it will work when clean.

Hedgehog, I found mud around the rubber grommet between the steering wheel and the tilt adjustment section. The frame cavities were filled with compacted mud. Axle housings full of sand. Mud in the carb air filter. Radiator was full of dried mud for the bottom 2/3. I think it was just a toy to enjoy for a couple of kids (remember, I'm pretty ancient) who never had to depend on the Jeep for more than a good time.

I'm cleaning everything I find, and will eventually get it all right again. When I get the ability to monitor fuel quantity and coolant temperature, (replacement gauges leave Norcross, GA tomorrow) I can believe that I can drive to some of the more remote boat launch sites around the MS Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, no matter what I discover, I enjoy greatly working on the old girl. "Idle hands are the Devil's workshop"

 

[johnbilt]

Probably a ground wire? The distributor gets grounded to the block, but the ground wire provides a positive connection. That's my guess anyhow. The other two wires are +12V ignition and a tach sender wire.

 

[Hedgehog]

Sounds like a flood victum to me. A jeep is so upen it seems like a candidate to save where a regular vehicle would be impossible to completely clean. That jeep has been under water was my very first thought when you showed the picture of your distributor.

 

[DHugg]

Sounds like a flood victum to me. A jeep is so upen it seems like a candidate to save where a regular vehicle would be impossible to completely clean. That was my very first thought when you showed the picture of your distributor.

Hedgehog, I'm very alert to post-hurricane salvage vehicles; been seeing them since Hurricane Betsy in New Orleans in 1965. This Jeep has no underbody or body rust, no frame rust pockets. It has all the rock scars of a Western US trail runner. But it also shows signs of sloppy mud-running, which seems to be a proclivity among the youth here along the Gulf Coast.

Hurricane salvage and immersion in mud both have the same outcome.... an opening for the enemy of old cars - rust.

I'll keep rust at bay by garaging, oiling, washing, and keeping the Jeep out of salt water.

 

[Hedgehog]

Yeah, I didn't really think about the salt water in a hurricane and the damage it can do. But honestly I have thought about the availability of rebuildable Jeeps and such left after a bad flood or hurricane. I suppose that could be looked apon as sort of a carpetbagger type situation though.

 

[starcommtrey1]

One word to fix this problem forever......UNILITE

 

[DHugg]

Re: '80 CJ 304 distributor doesn't look right - followup

Not only was it dirty inside as a dairy barn in winter, but the key that holds the cast iron activator for the Hall effect pickup was missing. To me that means that the shaft can turn without the cast iron activator singing along; nobody really knows what the timing is doing, including the dissy.

Most of you know where the vacuum canister sits relative to the engine - it was covered in caked-on mud. Musta been enough serious mudding to submerge every part. Yuck!