Distributor Differences

[ajakeski]

I was going to change the ignition wires on the Voyager and found the screws to the distributor cap were stripped. I dug out another distributor, HEP, cap and rotor and put it in with the new wires. Went to fire it and no start.
I spent an hour playing games with caps, wires and hall effect pickups without any luck. I put the original distributor back in and the van fired right up.
I got the cap off the original distributor and compared it with my replacement. My replacement distributor did not have a cut out in one shutter like the original. It must have come from a TBI car. I never paid much attention in the past and didn't realize there was a difference.

[jonnymopar]

Yep, they're different. With only one injector, the TBI cars don't need the reference window on one shutter. The good thing in this case is that the housings are the same, so you can just switch the internals and solve your problem with the stripped screw holes.

[Vigo]

That same issue kept me from starting the tbi-turbo conversion on my 90 van until i figured it out. Unfortunately i was so busy during that time period that when it wouldn't start i had to jump to other things and didn't come back to it for months!