Questions about Distributors

[Pyre]

My 1984 Pontiac Parisienne has a distributor with the points, rotor and cap. Rather than the rotor and cap that I am used to dealing with.

The cap and rotor are something that I have experiance maintaining. I do not have experiance with the points, or maintaining anything with points. I have had no real luck finding anything for information about how to change or maintain the points.

I would rather not pay a mechanic to do them, but learn to maintain and repair the car myself. However I havent found anyone that can explain the basics about how to maintain / replace the points or how they basically function.

Are there any videos or resources out there that someone can point me to on the topic? Or could someone please explain this to me?

I am slowly learning the information required for my car, and this is one topic that I am dead ending on. I am hoping that some of you guys with the old Pontiacs may have the points in yours too and be able to explain what I have to do to replace or maintain them at least.

 

[melsg5]

It's highly puzzling that a 1984 vehicle would have a points type distributor. GM basically gave up on them after 1974 and switched to HEI. You will need a dwell meter to properly adjust the points. The dwell setting is 30 degrees, after that you would typically check the ignition timing since change in dwell effects timing. The points if they have a built in condensor are held down with 2 screws. If the condensor is not built in you will see it sitting on the breaker plate next to the points held down by its own screw. Again I find it strange that you have this distributor and wonder if someone took out the original. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Pyre]

I thought it was weird as well but I am going by what the autoparts store is telling me it should have. They swore up and down that it had points. I figured that it was a bit new to have points myself, but I dont claim to know alot about the older stuff either.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to older vehicles. Especially if they have had people that "fix" things or do half-way repairs. I dont claim to be much of a mechanic but I at least have the common sense to ask about the stuff I dont know, or put in the research time to learn.

I will look into it closer. Is this something I can tell from looking at the cap or rotor, or will I need to tear the cap / rotor off to find out for sure? What is my easiest way to identify the exact type?

 

[melsg5]

If you have a points distributor it will have a small metal window on the side probably pointing toward the passenger side. You will also see eight wires one for each cylinder plus one for an external ignition coil coming out the top . An HEI distributor is larger in diameter and has only the 8 wires because the coil is built into the cap.

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[Squeekster]

Here is a picture of a point distributor and an HEI distributor. Point type on the left, HEI in the middle and a high performance HEI on the right.

 

[Pyre]

Well the cap definately belongs to an HEI Distributor, but the parts under the cap are what makes me wonder. From what I can see, it does look like it does have points and condensor under the rotor.

The rotor that I was sold at the parts store is definately not the same as what is on the car. They had the cap right but definately not the rotor. I am gonna try and find the batteries for my camera and get a picture of it to post to see if I can get it properly identified.

At this point, I am planning on going to a different auto parts store. This is not the first mistake the parts store I was using have made on selecting parts for my car. So hopefully I can get correct parts at the next store.