distributor cap

thejester · Post by **thejester** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:56 pm

who sells a good cap? I have two black caps from a supplier and both of them will not fire..I put the old cracked one back in and it runs good..

cuz · Post by **cuz** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:32 pm

Are they foreign made?

Did you check with Ron at G503 parts up there in Oregon? He's come into a large supply of M series electrical.
http://www.g503.com/parts/

Remove the distributor from the engine. Try soldering a short piece of copper wire to your rotor's copper tip. About a 1/4". Then point it straight out and install the cap. rotate the distributor very slowly by hand. Can you feel or hear the copper wire ticking on the terminals in the cap? If yes then the cap dimensions are off a bit. If no then they are really off. Take the cap off and slightly bend the wire upward a little. Install the cap and check again. Keep doing this until your wire makes contact with the terminals in the cap. Once you've made contact with your wire to the terminals in the cap then nip a small piece ( 1/16" at a time) off the wire untill the tick quits. This is now the length tip you need on your rotor. Once you know how much extension and in which direction you need it you can modify an extra rotor by adding a strip of copper to the rotor's existing copper tab by brazing or riveting.

This makes the caps usefull and saves a bit of change.

MSeriesRebuild · Post by **MSeriesRebuild** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:13 pm

We have some good quality caps, $40 plus shipping.

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:14 pm

That's what I'd call a "desperation, get-you-out-of-a-really-bad-situation" trick, but it would sure beat a 150-mile hike back out of the desert when your truck died.

cuz · Post by **cuz** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:37 pm

Something we learned to do in the 50's when we didn't want to spend another $3.50 on another cap just to end up with a bigger collection of non-fitting caps. Remember that $3.50 would gas my 55 Chevy up for a full evening of cruising back home on a Friday night!

thejester · Post by **thejester** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:35 pm

do you take visa yet charles?

MSeriesRebuild · Post by **MSeriesRebuild** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:32 am

thejester wrote:do you take visa yet charles?

Not into the credit card thing, convenient, it sure is, but also would force me to charge you more as the convenience of using a card for you cost us more to do business. Nothing is free. If I were a parts vendor, I would get set up to take cards, since we are a rebuilder/restorer, it really wouldn't pay. Most of our customers are billed monthly and pay by check.