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My 292 Y-block has been idling fast, so it turns out the advance weights in my 7 year old MSD Ready to run Distributor were frozen at partial or full mechanical advance. Check out the corrosion in there. Now I will admit periodic maintenance is a good idea for distributors with advance weights, but good grief! It was so corroded that one of the return springs was rusty dust. I did have to R & R the thing to set things right, and it's all nice and smooth now, which brings us to the PSA part:
Just because it's an "electronic distributor", if it has mechanical advance weights, it's a good idea to pop the cap or whatever it takes every year or two to clean and lube the system. I had to buy a $28 MSD Advance Kit 8464 to replace the springs. The kit has the various limit bushings in it too, so I swapped to a bushing that takes 4 degrees out of the total. I can maybe use "cheaper" (!?) gas..... Wish I could figure out the rust in there. Not enough regular driving and outdoor parking doesn't help.
Do you live in a humid climate? I don't since I live in the desert southwest but the distributor in my ski boat would get like yours did if I didn't maintain it, I also found out the hard way. Thanks for the heads up.
I'm in Oakland CA, so no, not particularly humid. The other thing I can recommend is to get these little spark plug wire id numbers. It makes it a lot easier to get the firing order right again after I rip it all apart during the YEARLY INSPECTION!
I'm in Oakland CA, so no, not particularly humid. The other thing I can recommend is to get these little spark plug wire id numbers. It makes it a lot easier to get the firing order right again after I rip it all apart during the YEARLY INSPECTION!
I 2nd the plug wire numbers. With the brackets and the wires running behind the heads and under the exhaust manifolds it's easy to get them crossed up.
I had the same issue at one time with the timing "jumping around" at idle. I finally opened up the distributor and found everything rusted up, weights, springs etc.
Got everything freed up and the timing was rock steady. Eventually replaced the whole distributor for one that had vacuum advance. The reason no vacuum advance was in it was the motor in my truck was a Ford 302 marine/industrial engine from the early 70's. It may not sound sexy to people but it's a great motor and runs extremely well.
I think I have it timed/curved pretty close to right. Since I haven't dialed it in for a long time, I am starting with 10 degrees initial, with additional 21 degrees mech advance in by 2,800 rpm. The distributor also has a vacuum can that I have connected to a ported vacuum source. Sounds conservative I know. But it idles rock steady at 675 rpm and seems to have good throttle response in the driveway. Haven't driven it yet.
I used to live in the Southbay (San Jose, Campbell area and was in Marine Corps in Hayward). The bay area has a lot of moisture in the air, I am not surprised at all by that light rust. I saw that a lot when I worked as a mechanic at a speed shop in San Jose. Internal distributor maintenance is often neglected. Glad you found your issue and got it resolved.
Great PSA, thanks.
It's true. Foggy mornings are the norm here, so there is a source of moisture. The MSD cap is vented which mitigates or exacerbates the under cap corrosion issue depending on who you ask. I did drive it and the current timing/advance curve seems like a good place to leave it for awhile.
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