Re: [Amc-list] Dust or smoke in the distributor cap

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Joe Smith wrote:
> I have a pertronix in my 61 American, and the other day, it just stopped.  I could tell it wasn't getting any fire, so I took off the distributor cap and the "passenger" side of the cap was coated with a fine dust.  I wiped it out with a rag, blew off the pertronix and drove home, very perplexed.  What would cause that dust or smoke and why?
> I am currently planning to put a pertronix in my 63 American, but am starting to have second thoughts.  
> Both have OHV 196's from Rambler Classics. 

It's not the Pertronix doing that.

Were these distributors new, or old? White powdery stuff that caused it 
to stop running sounds like the white metal oxides that form on the 
distributor cap contacts from age.

If the distributor caps and distrib were old, and you started running 
them recently, all that crap could have come loose all at once.

Most dust causes problems by making a path for water to short things 
out; the dust itself isn't necessarily conductive. But it's reasonably 
dry in SoCal now, so that seems less likely.

There's a good chance this won't come back ever, if it was old metal 
oxides stirred up from use. If it happens again, I'd pull the 
distributor, do a complete disassembly, clean and lube.
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