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Date:         Fri, 13 Sep 2002 03:03:44 +0100
Reply-To:     Clive Smith <clive.harman-smith@NTLWORLD.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Clive Smith <clive.harman-smith@NTLWORLD.COM>
Subject:      Re: "On the cheap" tune-up
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

The important thing would be not to slip and scratch the inside of the dissie-cap (at all), else you risk trouble in high humidity or wet weather. And not to slowly increase the gap too much over time , till one day the spark decides to go walkies by another route (aided by above).

Clive '88 Syncro Transporter

----- Original Message ----- From: "DaveC" <voicebox@DNAI.COM> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 2:00 AM Subject: "On the cheap" tune-up

> I was tired of buying $70 distributor caps for one of my cars, so I > decided to experiment by cleaning up one of them. > > I hauled out my Dremel drill and put on a sanding drum. I then took > off the distributor cap and cleaned up the carbon deposits on each of > the brass contacts inside using the Dremel/drum. (I didn't touch the > center contact -- it's carbon, or something, and it looks brittle and > doesn't have any deposits to clean up anyway.) > > I touched up the rotor by hand with just some sandpaper. The Dremel > technique would be a bit overkill. > > You have to be careful how you go at the contacts; the brass is soft, > and the drill is fast. It is very easy to take off a lot of brass if > you're not careful. I used the slowest speed on the drill. > > Results? It felt like I'd installed new parts. The idle smoothed out > and there was a bit more power. Very nice. All for 5 minutes work and > no extra cost (above the cost of owning the Dremel). > > I have no idea if the interval between "touch-ups" is equivalent to > the interval between replacing the cap and rotor with new components. > Perhaps it is a bit less, I'll let you know. > > I wonder how many "touch-ups" I can get out of one distributor cap? > > Dave > -- > Dave Carpenter > > "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from > magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke


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