Distributor cap question

[mattswabb]

My BPT has recently started sputtering under full boost (10psi). Tonight I looked into it. When I pulled the dist. cap off there was some corrosion inside. Cleaned/sanded the terminals and the car runs smooth now.

The question is - How long do these last? This one I got when I put the car together and there's less than 5000 miles on it. My daily driver festiva made it 1 year (12000 miles) till it wouldn't start. On that car I replaced it and the rotor and fired right up.

I've always bought the cheaper "store brand". Any differences in the more expensive ones?

[packrat427]

I know you can sucessfully clean them , I have always been told if they are corroded ,replace them .depending on what you use ,it can take of some of the meat , and increases the distance (air gap) between the rotor and contacts in the cap.
I tried to search a certain problem with a cap , I do believe their are different materials that corode more than others , from moisture ,some heat .
I think the best caps do have brass/copper contact in there.

[Deathshead]

just dont try to throw a cap in a beadblast booth, it shoots metal and embeds it into the cap all over and turns it into one of those old toy cars with the big spark wheel on it, hah..

Cheap caps, expensive caps, they have all seemed to be about the same quality to me.


I guess it really depends on conditions for them to last, my last festiva had 123k the clock with original plug,wires and cap and it still ran like a fine watch.. then some cars will eat up caps ever 20k..

[mooseheadc]

I guess it really depends on conditions for them to last, my last festiva had 123k the clock with original plug,wires and cap and it still ran like a fine watch.. then some cars will eat up caps ever 20k..

Had one that did that. Drilling a 1/16" hole in the cap seemed
to help keep the terminals from corroding up as fast

[mattswabb]

Picked up my new cap today. I ordered a premium cap from advanced auto, the brand was gp sorensen. What a difference between the standard and premium cap. This one has brass terminals inside for the rotor and on the top for the plugs. Much thicker construction. Haven't installed it yet. I'm waiting on a msd coil I ordered. Want to try that with the bad cap and see how much of a difference the extra voltage makes.


Just from the looks of the cap I'll be buying the premium from now on.

[miami man]

put it this way...i have had both of my festivas die in the drivway,sputtering because of the contact inside of the coil tower of the distibuter cap was badly corroded and it took a needle nose plyers to remove the brass part from the coil wire that went into the distibuter cap. again it happened on both of my festivas is there a pattern?

[ajb999]

we use a lot of brass fittings and stuff in plumbing and brass is a very good metal for a lot of things. i haven't used it much for electrical but it is pretty neutral. i still need to replace my distributor and it's running like it was 5 years ago on a cheap one my parents put in. i would think the brass would last longer and work better though.

[4 wheel m/c]

Up here in the land of human rust and liquid sunshine I've always bought brass terminal cap and rotors. It's been my experience that NAPA usually has the largest selection.

[yvanlavoie20]

silicone grease

use silicone grease to lubricate the wires on the cap, prevent cososion and water to get inside :wink:

yvan

[WmWatt]

Apparently I ruined a distributor cap by cleaning the contacts with sand paper. Used to be fine doing that with brass contacts but supposedly does not work with platinum-coated contacts. Had to replace the cap.