Folks,
Today I replaced the alternator belt on my '79 spitfire. It was
definitely the most advanced maintenance job I've ever performed on a
car. Seriously! In any case, it turned out to be easy - and I'm
looking forward to years of fixing this thing.
While working on the belts, I noticed that one of the screws keeping
the vacuum device on the distributor was missing. Upon further
investigation I noticed that:
1. The other screw was a sawed off machine screw that someone had forced
in (and it was quite loose).
2. The actual vacuum part was just hanging loosely on the side of the
distributor.
3. The hose attached to this part was loose and about to fall off.
And now for the the questions...
a. What is thing thing? I see people talking about vacuum advances and
retards. What are they and what's the difference?
b. How can I tell which one I have?
c. What are the implications of driving around when it is not attached
correctly / tightly?
d. Does anybody know what size screw was probably used to hold this
thing on? (I'm looking for more than "Yes" here :-) Actually, on
this note, my understanding is that all of the hardware on the car
is metric. However, my Chilton book rhymes off a list of non-metric
tools that are needed in order to do maintenance work. What gives?
I used a 1/2" wrench to slacken the bolts for my belt work, but I
suspect that a metricky tool of a slightly different size would
have been best. Comments?
e. What are my options if the idiot who jammed the machine screw in
ruined the threading on distributor? Can these things be
re-threaded? It's all being supported by electrical tape right now.
As always, feel free to point out the obvious. This is all new to me.
Thanks in advance!
Anthony
'79 Spitfire 1500
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Anthony Green Cygnus Solutions
Sunnyvale, California
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