Wobbling dizzy

[Reverend]

I havent even noticed it before until my friend said that my distributor wobbles. Is it normal..? I dont want to wreck anything.

[5thhorsemann]

define "wobble"

[FastWoman]

EDIT: Haha! I hadn't noticed: "wobbling dizzy" Now that's funny!

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Not normal, no matter how it wobbles.

If the shaft is tight but wiggles back and forth as it turns, that may be due to a bad rebuild.

If the shaft is loose and you can wiggle it back and forth with your fingers, it needs rebuilding.

Edited April 27, 2011 by FastWoman

[Reverend]

Okay but i can drive with it? I mean im not going to any road trip but you know, 10 miles etc. I will order a new distributor asap.

[steve91tt]

I had a wobbling dizzy when I installed a new mallory unit. Turned out to be a badly machined coupling at the bottom of the distributor. You might take your current one out and make sure that it is aligning properly with the oil pump drive and that the oil pump drive coupling is good shape.

[Reverend]

I have now upgraded my old distributor and it is no-points now. But it still wobbles! The engineer who upgraded it, said it worked fine on his tests (and it works fine in my Z too BUT IT WOBBLES!!) I have tested 2 oil pump drive couplings and no effect. So what's left to inspect?

I have 500 mile roadtrip ahead tommorrow so...

[Bruce Palmer]

Could be a bent shaft or bushings worn allowing the shaft to wander (see "wobble")..... Heard about one where the offset slot had been forced on the oil pump drive so hard it bent the shaft.

wobbilyous maximus.... will interfere with all that elecrtical stuff that goes on inside the distributor unless the guts and the housing are doing their dance in tandem...... but that is a whole other story......

[Oiluj]

Did your engineer check or replace the dizzy shaft bearings when it was upgraded, or just put in the electronic ignition? Also, how "much" is it wobbling?

If it's got less than .020" total side-to-side slop, it's probably OK to use with the electronic ignition. Most electronic ignitions are very forgiving of dizzy shaft wobble. If it's got more slop than that, I'd keep looking for a root cause.

Even so, I'd check it after your trip to see if it's getting worse...

[5thhorsemann]

I still don't understand what you mean by wobble, is it the center shaft flopping around in the housing, like a bad bushing or bearing? Is the rotor rotating off center like the shaft is bent? Or is the whole bamn thing, housing cap and all moving around? Please explain.

[Reverend]

The whole damn thing is moving around. I made my 690 mile roadtrip with no problems, so its not that serious. I hope.

Maybe its the offset slot that is causing this, how could i make it stop if the problem is there?

[5thhorsemann]

If the entire housing is moving, you have a bent shaft or coupling somewhere. I would say that this will come to a head at some point, which will likely require a rollback. I would replace the whole thing.

[Reverend]

The axel from oilpump is straight, as is the dizzy axel (or so says the engineer who modded it) Guess im going nowhere with this.