An old timer told me that back in the day that they used to spray the outside of the distributor with pam to keep moisture out...

would this be a bad thing to try with the optispark?
or can someone clear this up for me?

 

Well, I suppose any coating that is not water permeable would help prevent leaking, but PAM would not be very permanent. If you have a leak, sealing the case joints with silicone RTV would be a lot more permanent. If you are looking for something that can spray on and seal, I'd think a polymer would be a lot more effective than PAM. Spray on plastic truck bed coating seals stuff pretty well, but I don't know that I'd want it on my opti.

 

I would not mess with the opticrap. Just don't drench it. If it ain't broke---.
The old distributors were much simpler. If they got wet you'd wind up removing the cap and spraying with moisture displacer, like CRC or WD-40 (or just drying them off with a towel.)

The opticrap is undoubtedly an engineering fax pas, especially in its location---you don't want to drive through a deep puddle like some of these morons do or you will wind up drowning as the water continues to rise------the problem is not so much that the water interfers with the distributor, but that it apparently ruins it.

See no reason not to do something innovative to protect the opticrap or replace it with something better if it goes ts-up but spraying it with PAM or any other greasy crap will just attract dirt witch will probably clog the vents and trap moisture within. JMHO

 

How old is the opti cap and rotor?
When they are new the seal on the cap does a decent job of keeping the the moisture out.
If it has alot of miles on it, it would be time to do the cap and rotor. While you have the cap off you can take some plastic safe eletronic cleaner and clean the opti eye off and clean the reluctor ring too. when you put your cap back on what you do is you use a silicone around the pieces to seal off the edges. Don't put it on the fresh silicone seal because you will split it and allow moisture in. If you cap has low miles and the silicone seal is cracked then you would put it around the edges once you take the old seal off.take your time and make sure the silicone deos not ooz into the distributor. To get the cap off use one of the TB plate screws. A clean opti is much better than one that is dirty inside. Once this is done you will deffinately notice it will run much smoother too..
Pam worked really well on the old chrysler caps becase those never sealed worth crap! (you have to silicone those too back in the day) I would rather have an optispark over the old chrysler system any day

 

slap me for being stupid but is the optical eye on an opti similar to that of a cd player?

 

The optical sensor has two LED's that shine through the slots in the wheel, and two light receptors to read the light pulses from the LED's through the slots. Not at all like the laser in a CD player.

 

If you've ever taken apart an old time ball mouse, you can see the basic principle. The wheel turns, and a laser shines through the slots in the wheel, giving real-time crankshaft speed. It was actually a great innovation for its time, GM just didn't think it through too well in its location and construction.