Distributer Question

ok, amid my problems trying to get my '85 back to the land of the living, the distributer is next. It's corroded and has the screwon type caps that 3 of 4 bolts broke in the base of it and the cap is being held in place by vise grips :)

So the question is does anybody have a reference out there to see if the distributers are the same on all the TPIs or is this another fun learning experience that the '85 has some screwed up design to it in it's 6 month lifespan before somebody woke at GM and said what the hell?

Any other car I would say a small block is a small block and the distributer is interchangable with the exception of how many pins are on the ICM. Going to a swap meet tomorrow to bag one so just want to be sure. I'm pulling mine out tonight to get the gist of how it's set up, but just wnat to be sure.

Thanks ya'll

Damn wrightz28, i wish i could help you out man. Not enough knowledge yet. Hoepfully someone will chime in here soon...

It's just all the goofy things they did with the first run TPI for 85, i.e. no fan switch, no maf relays let's use a F'n $800 module piggybacked to the ECM, an entirely different ECM, only. Only thing done right was the beefier cam, not by much but good enough, and that's half my concern, if the gear drives are different. And moslty, are the internals of the ign. set up different since the rest of the engine mgmt is different than succeeding years?

85 was the 1st year and the most complicated huh? You know how that is guess. They put it out there, find out what the buggies were, and fix it for the later years. Damn GM, why'd you do that? Well atleast you got a better cam than the crapola i got in there. Have taken out the distributor already?

Planned on taking it out tonight. Now they're talking snow. Never fails, as soon as I start getting the ball rolling on this thing either something else has to be taken care of or the weather takes a dive. meh, piss on it, snow or no snow, it comes out tongiht.

I'm telling ya, it's a conspiracy. Everytime you plan to do something, something always seems to stand in the way, bills, weather, world, you name it. Hopefully all goes well for ya Wright.

If you pulling it out just wrap it up in a bag and bring it with you just for peace of mind. I am fairly confident that all of the TPI distributors were the same. The coil isnt mounted on the cap and theres going to be an icm under the cap. Whether or not all years had the same type of icm i dont know. But I would be sketchy about electronics coming from mysterious places anyways so being a paranoid person id replace it.

I did some bouncing around and atleast the 86 &87's seem to all be the same. i have the coil in cap. So Now the only difference would be the ICM set up, there's some with 5 pins out there and some with 7? But I want to say the 7 pin ones are for the carbed motors with map sensors.

on the cap?? weird....My 89 with a tbi has the exact same dist. that i have on my 92tpi. They must of changed stuff around in 88.

alright, so pulled the dist. it was a mess

new icm pick up checks ok? 1300 ohms on effect.

no change.

now i've pulled the t/b off and it was full of carbon again. starting to think i'm going to put it in the next egrs gone wild! video?

eh, egrs ok so what ever. I'm done with this pos.

oh, lesson lesarned:

when aggraveted and launcheing objects, be sure they steer clear of windows, my garage window seems to be in need of repair, oops.

oh, quickly noted oddeties:

1 when the o2 or egr vac. solenoind is disconnected, the ecm go give a rats? :dunno:

oh, lesson lesarned:

when aggraveted and launcheing objects, be sure they steer clear of windows, my garage window seems to be in need of repair, oops.

i remember when i couldnt get my rs to start for days and had fixed everything i knew to fix and it still wouldnt start unless i pulled a spark plug then put it back in i threw the keys at the windshield and busted it....that kinda sucked

ok, anywho. went ti the swap buggie, got a new sensor, not the roght one for the car but it works, I htink the one that was on it might actually be the wrong one. now it runs, still has a burp up in the acceleration but is driviable. oh, a big part of the problem was weak ass spark due to a grounded carbon button to the coil, don't know how the hell I missed it but it was burned beyond recognition. I'm highly drunk so mind my typng but it looks like if I replace the dizzy as I intended and the secondary, [lugs and wirse she''ll be ok

huh?

On the F bodies the 85 & 86 used the same large cap distributor. In 87 they switched to the small cap with remote coil. Better news is that all of the Corvettes used the same large cap distributor from 85-89 (not sure on 90 & 91 and 92 was first Lt1) So..85 & 86 TPI F body or 85-89 Corvette will fit.

Thanks Morley,have a replacement in line already.

Anyway to clarify, since I can barely figure out what in the world I was getting at, problem solved, the carbon button from the rotor to the base of the intigrated coil was melted beyond recognition and causing a intermittent ground out of the coil. Could only be found ofter I installed a replacement used MAF to get the mottor to run long enough with a spark tester to see the spark start strong then fade out . Also the distributer's shaft bushing is worn and the distributor is bouncing between 1500-2000 rpms.

So I swapped the coil, button, & ICM and it's running and moveable again. Just a comnplete R & R of the enitre ignition system now and all s/b well. :)

So Wrightz28, the car's running and are your driving it again? I assume all went well at the swap meet.

eh, every distributer was vac. adv. or remote coil. So ended up with flinagleing mine together with spare parts and a MAF I picked up at the meet for $20 (w/snorkel :D )

Damn, your lucky. $20 is a damn good deal. Hope all goes well man.