Smooothie119

To make a long story short:

I was on my way home from work yesterday when one second I was just cruising along in the left lane in 5th gear, & the next the engine just died with no warning. I tried restarting while I was rolling, but no luck.

I pulled over & checked my wires, cap & rotor connections & my ignition coil. Everything seemed ok, no loose or cracked wires. I tried starting the car, but it wouldn't turn over, not even a little. I used the ol paper clip trick to check the PCM & the only code it's throwing is #12, which I think it's supposed to throw when using the paper clip method if nothing else.

I had AAA tow it to a nearby garage & the mechanic looked at it today & said to get it running it needs a new ignition module, the ignition pickup is rotting but working (I could have him fix it now if you want, but eventually it'll die), it also needs a new distributor cap & rotary= $320 to fix.

I think that's a rip off & am thinking of just having it towed back home & doing it myself.

My qeustions are:

1) Is the ignition module the same as the ignition coil? (If so, thats cake & I could replace that no prob) In fact, I think I had to replace that when I first got the car 4 years ago. I could also do the cap & rotor.

2) What's the ignition pick-up? Is that the wire that connects to the back of the distributor? & how easy is it to replace?

The car is an 87 IROC with a T5 & the LB9 TPI motor

Stephen 87 IROC

The module is the little electronic black box inside the distributor. It can easily be changed. It's what the wires plug into.

The pickup is under the rotor. To replace it, you need to pull and disassemble the distributor. A lot of times the wires on the pickup get dried out and crack. Once they break, the ignition stops working.

You can pull the module and have it tested at most auto parts stores to determine if it works or not.

blue69camaro383

you can also get a red cap distributer from summit for $160...my megnetic pickup was going on my old car and once i replaced the distributer...it was all good again

angel71rs

You might just want to get a rebuilt distributor at Autozone. Comes with new pickup and module.

Smooothie119

ok, I picked up a remanufactured dist & a cap & rotor kit from Autozone. Probably kinda dumb to ask this now, but how hard is it to install?

I picked up a manual & was reading through it & it seems fairly easy, with the rights tools & some time. I'm not the handiest person when it comes to the car, but I understand how the components work & it doesn't seem too bad.

I'm only doing this myself because I refuse to pay a shop $320 to replace my cap, rotor, & ignition ctrl module, or $500 to add the Pick up in as well.

Hell, the parts only cost me $130 & the diag fee for the garage looking at it is $77. I can get my baby towed back to my house for free.

Any pointers or key things to lookout for would be greatly appreciated.

Stephen 87 IROC

Go to a doctor and say "My arm hurts when I do this. Tell me what's wrong and I'll fix it myself."

That's the same thing as most people do with their cars. If you don't have the knowledge of how to properly fix it, you should have it done by a mechanic. It could cost you more if you screw somehting up or get frustrated and have to have it towed back to the shop because you couldn't fix it.

Read the manuals. If you still don't understand what needs to be done, pay someone to do it right the first time.

Advice is always free but explaining step by step on how to fix something is a waste of all my training.

angel71rs

Install is easy. Just mark the position of the rotor of the original distributor on a fixed reference, like the firewall. Disconnect everything, remove the hold down, pop distributor out. Install rebuilt unit. The gear at the bottom is at an angle, so you need to have rotor slightly counter clockwise so that it spirals clockwise as you slide it in and points in same direction as original unit.

It probably won't drop the last 3/8". that's because the tang at the bottom is not aligning with oil pump drive. Just let it sit there and give starter a couple of bumps and it will engage the tang and drop all the way down. Plug everything back in, fire it up and set final timing. You can go to thirdgen.org and they have a page on how to time it.

A good repair manual is a wise investment. I'm a believer in learning by doing; if things go wrong, hey, live and learn. But it's much better to read up on something, than jump in and find out later there was info in the manual that would have saved you a lot of grief if you had just read it first.

Just don't let the engine spin while it is distributorless or the reference mark for the original rotor position will no longer be good, and you'll have to pull #1 spark plug to re-establish a reference.

angel71rs

Holy cow, I just noticed the prices they quoted you.

I'm sure jobber price for the parts is under $100. An experienced mechanic can do the work in about an hour. that's over $400 for an hours worth of work.

I'm not against mechanics making a good living, but sometimes those guys get usurous when they are dealing with the uninformed. If they had said 200 or even 250 ok, but 500 for a skate job is out of line, IMO.

Smooothie119

That's exactly what I thought my approach was going to be for the most part. I've helped with a dist replacement before, but some of the details are blurry cuz it was 4 years ago.

To comment on Stephen 87 Iroc's reply: I totally understand what you're saying & respect the advice. However, I definitely wouldn't have tackled this project if I didn't think I could handle it or thought I possessed enough knowledge of what needs to be done. For example: if I blew my motor or knew that my motor needed new piston rings or bearings or what-have-you, I definitely wouldn't journey into that territory. I helped once install a new crank & bearings to get my car running when I first got it, but I wasn't in the driver's seat & didn't possess the know-how or understanding of the functioning of those parts at the time.

I guess what motivated me was the fact that I understand a whole heck of alot more about how cars work through helping friends & learning, etc. And now after seeing how 'simple' some things can be, it makes it that much more apparent how some shops are really getting you good for labor. I too have nothing against mechanics making a good living & the fact that they're very skilled at what they do, but I think it's sometimes ridiculous how much they get you for labor.

My original quote was $320 to replace a cap, rotor, & control module, which the first 2 are cake & from reading the manual to see where the module is located, seems to be cake as well (as long as the necessary precautions are taken, of course). I wasn't told how long it would take, so I don't know how much of that is labor, but from quoting prices online, it appears that all 3 components can be purchased for around $100 or a hair over that.

Then to also be told that if I want to include the pick-up, that would be an additional $170 partly because it would require an additional 1.5 hours of labor because they'd have to remove the dist.

Well, enough of my rambling. I want to thank everybody for their input!
I've learned so much about my car & how to resolve issues since I became a member of these boards (which I think I'm going on 4 or 5 years now).

This online community is truly the best

Smooothie119

Woohoo! Car is back in action. Only took about 2 hours & the hardest part of it all was removing the bolt that holds the distributor in place, because it's such a tight spot.

I don't have a timing light, so I couldn't set the timing. Also, I wasn't exactly perfect with the reinstall, so it's a tad off, but it's not really noticeable & the car runs fine. Setting the correct timing will have to be another day.

Best part of it is: the parts only cost me about $130 (remanufactured dist, cap, & rotor). I also had to pay a diag fee for having the shop look at it: $83
& the service manual was about $15 (which I didn't really need because I could've got instructions online or used the ones that came with the dist, but it's good to have anyway).

So, I saved about $262.