vetteguy75

This afternoon I had a major distributor failure, at lunch time, in the middle of a major intersection. Talk about embarassing... There was a Good Samaritan who stopped and helped me push the car into a Time-It Lube parking lot. After trying for 30 minutes to restart...unsuccessfully...I had to get it towed to my mechanic. He performed several tests, and came to the conclusion that my distributor was shot....so I ordered (overnight) an MSD Street Fire HEI from Summit Racing....will be here tomorrow (Weds) and I will be riding in style again. Here are 2 pics of it on the tow truck....

Les

Well it may not be running too well right now but it still looks good even on the flatbed.

tfi racing

You may be surprised at how many people would be impressed that it is on a flatdeck,they likely think its off to a show or something.
I feel for you,I had to get flat decked once because of a bad point set, at least you weren't stranded in the middle of the bald *** prairie with no cell phone coverage for a few hours...

BKbroiler

It could be just a bad ignition module.

Gordonm

Pretty rare that it is a bad distributer. The whole assembley rarely goes wrong. Usually a bad module or coil that goes bad. Anyway you now have a brand new distributer. Hope that solves the problem. Car still looks good even on a flatbed.

joewill

thats why I love my ignition points, so easy to troubleshoot, they work fine up to the rpm that my engine will never see.. and I have no fear of coasting to a stop on the highway..

leadfoot4

That's what really scares me about all of these 100% electronic cars that are being made today.

Gordonm

If points were so good and reliable they would still be used today. The modern electronics are much more reliable and work so much better than points. Take your daily driver now. I drive my DD 100K miles and never even think about plugs or them being fired. The old points systems you were messing with at 10 to 20K miles and they were not reliable. We broke a set of points in our 69 station wagon when I was a kid and it left us stranded. I had 2 sets go in my 70 Camaro. I have been running electronics now for years and never had a probelm. I'd be curious to know what really went bad in his distributer. The modules in early HEI systems are known to overheat and fail. That probelm has been solved. I'll stick with the modern stuff and keep the points on the shelf.

joewill

good point ( no pun intended )!
there will aways be debate between the 2...

movinup

I always carry spare modules in both my Vette and street rod. Problem solved.

Sigforty

A distributor is much better than what I thought it was. I saw the title and expected to hear about a wreck. Sounds like you should be back on the road in no time.

leadfoot4

You're forgetting something...the EPA regulations initially required that an automobile would maintain its emmisions level at a steady rate for 50,000 miles. No, point type ignitions couldn't do that, primarily because the average American treats his/her car like a refrigerator....plug it in, and forget about it unless it stops working.

As you mentioned, a set of points lasts a certain amount of time, and car enthusiasts like most of us here, understood that, and would change then at some reasonable interval, no matter what. Therefore our cars wouldn't become "gross polluters" like the "average American" would allow their cars to become. Therefore, electronic ignitions became the norm, since they generally provide 100% spark energy all the time.....until they die, leaving you with 0% energy and stranded.

lock-n-load

larryg3

Glad it was something simple.

glackore

Whether it is the whole distributor that needed replacing or just a bad component (rare that the whole thing must be replaced), at least it isn't a costly repair - just something simple. By the way, you have a nice looking car!

10caipirinhas

I am more impressed by the $5 price on the XPRESS CAR WASH sign.......

Car looks good on the flat deck though.

chevymans 77

Car still looks good on the flat bed

Mine stopped right out of the car wash one day

I had tried to save $30 and installed a Pro-Comp ignition box, when I washed my engine it took the box out and left me sitting about 100' from the car wash. I put the HEI back in and its been fine.

I recently installed the MSD E-Curve Dist and love it, I'm working on installing a MSD 6AL today (hope I don't regret it).

Heading up to Alexandria/Pine Ville area for a soccer tournament on Friday and Saturday, weather don't look to good though.

Hope you get the distributor issue worked out so you can enjoy the car before the weather gets to bad.

Neal

Paul Borowski

...kind of ironic that it was at a "Time It" facility.

...the original dated HEI module is still in my 'ol '75 with 169,000mi.

...I always carried two spares with me, just never had to use them.

...the rotor can also burn a hole in the center metal tab which will cause a fail in the spark to the plugs too.

LancePearson

Nice looking car. On that color the black convert. top really looks good.

PRNDL

A "sad day" ? you are kidding us, right?

Hey, at least you didn't run over your foot!