Check this one out: I was driving a few night ago turning right out of a stoplight and punched it just a little bit; it only got up to about 3000. But when I hit the gas it was like I hit a "break car now" button. The engine cut off a split second after I hit the gas and wouldn't even try to start again. Once or twice in all my cranking I had a big backfire, but then I had to get it towed. I know enough now not to waste too much time troubleshooting. I've learned to just go ahead and take the distributor out. Sure enough, the two little plastic tabs that hold the T shaped contact on the rotor had broken off so the T contact that sweeps past the points was broken off.
Very funny.

 

I believe this to be the most common type of distributor failure, be it either an Opti or a "normal" distributor. The opti with it's verticle rotor orientation, seems to be more prone to catistrophic failure then the rotor gets loose. The "T contact" as you call it, is only held in place by two plastic pins that have had the ends melted and flattened with heat. Not a very good method in my opinion. The contact end of the rotor is also larger then older type distributors and I believe this causes larger stresses on the plastic pins. Eventually the outer pin fails and the rotor is allowed to contact the cap. I will post some pict. later which shows this very well. I hope!!

 

I like this pic (posted on another forum) from a Borg-Warner unit:

 

Good picture. And yep, mine was a Borg Warner. Lifetime guaranteed from O'Reilly's. I had a rotor without many miles on it from a stock unit that I put on so it's fixed now. I thought about putting some epoxy on it or even putting some very small screws through it, but I didn't want to get it way out of balance.

 

Good pic Rob...just an observation on that pic - looks like the end of the contact is unevenly worn/corroded...spinning at the high rpm's these things spin at, even the slightest bit of unbalance in that rotating assembly would put extra stress on those plastic "rivets". Wonder if that led to the failure? I rehabbed my OEM opti that had 76k on it earlier this year, part of what I did was file down the corrosion/pitting that was present on the end of the "T" with very light grade sandpaper...making sure that I was very even on both ends of the T, and sprayed the hell out of the opti with MAF cleaner...been running like a champ for months since and saved a few hundred.

 

I always drill the plastic out and use 1/8" alum rivets. Even on new units, I void all warantee and dissect to mod the rotor. (My) Stock rotor Opti's have a good fail rate with high spark mod systems like MSD.

I have not had a rotor problem since I have used the rivet mod.
Note: The outside rivet requires a file to provide internal cover clearance. Also, it is wise to insulate the underside of the "inside" rivet on the rotor. Remember to blue loc-tite those rotor mounting scews (I think a #9 torx).

I also did not like the stock check valve on the vented opti. I made my own (I have a FI app). Opti's don't like engine mods (my opinion).

B.