I have had my Accel distributor for about 5k miles. I had one problem where the screws that hold down the hall effect sensor down came loose, luckily I caught it before it caused any damage.
Just last night I was driving home and my car suddenly started running like CRAPOLA, hardly wanting to start and not wanting to go much faster than 40 MPH. All gauges looked OK so I limped the rest of the way home(2 blocks). I pulled the cap of to see if the distributor was the issue(everything else looked OK and even though it ran like butt, it was smooth.) I tried to rotate the rotor and it spun pretty freely, it felt like the distributor gear had gone. So I pulled the distributor out to check the damage and it looked worn, but fine, the pin was fine as well. So I held the gear and rotated the rotor, it turned pretty easily, enough so that any rapid RPM change would cause the rotor to turn out of timing. I'm not sure what has happened at this point as I have not pulled the distributor apart yet.
I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue before, and what was the cause.
Also, this may be a good reason to stay away from Accel distributors, I would have gone MSD but did not realize they had a direct swap distributor.
To me, this is a serious issue, what if the timing had been advanced instead of retarded? What if I was making a pass under boost or gas? This could have melted pistons, bent rods, snapped crank!
Just last night I was driving home and my car suddenly started running like CRAPOLA, hardly wanting to start and not wanting to go much faster than 40 MPH. All gauges looked OK so I limped the rest of the way home(2 blocks). I pulled the cap of to see if the distributor was the issue(everything else looked OK and even though it ran like butt, it was smooth.) I tried to rotate the rotor and it spun pretty freely, it felt like the distributor gear had gone. So I pulled the distributor out to check the damage and it looked worn, but fine, the pin was fine as well. So I held the gear and rotated the rotor, it turned pretty easily, enough so that any rapid RPM change would cause the rotor to turn out of timing. I'm not sure what has happened at this point as I have not pulled the distributor apart yet.
I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue before, and what was the cause.
Also, this may be a good reason to stay away from Accel distributors, I would have gone MSD but did not realize they had a direct swap distributor.
To me, this is a serious issue, what if the timing had been advanced instead of retarded? What if I was making a pass under boost or gas? This could have melted pistons, bent rods, snapped crank!
