Three Caps in Three Months

harry54

Has anyone experienced this.... My 54 Hornet keeps cracking distributer caps... I've gone thru 3 in 3 mo's. It's always in the same spot. On the upper left side of the cap as your looking down by the drivers fender. I'm interested in opinions... I thought that it was a bad batch of standard al-130 caps...Problem with the plastic... But then I bought one from Dave Kostansek and that was nos and same thing happened.. Any Idea's..... ?????? I'm running out of Caps......

rambos_ride

harry54 wrote:

Has anyone experienced this.... My 54 Hornet keeps cracking distributer caps... I've gone thru 3 in 3 mo's. It's always in the same spot. On the upper left side of the cap as your looking down by the drivers fender. I'm interested in opinions... I thought that it was a bad batch of standard al-130 caps...Problem with the plastic... But then I bought one from Dave Kostansek and that was nos and same thing happened.. Any Idea's..... ?????? I'm running out of Caps......

Sounds like the rotor is hitting the cap. How's the play in the distributor shaft up and down - side to side and any marks?

harry54

No Marks... that's the strange part... always seem's to crack between the wire inputs.... Then it looks like July 4.....

[Deleted User]

I would check for a burr or nick on the lip of the distributor right below the cracked area. Then work around the lip if not directly under the crack. Something is concentrating stress in that spot on the cap.
Bob

harry54

Checked all the old cracked caps.. no real clues...... I'm guessing that the distributor shaft has to much play....

SuperDave

On this subject, I had a VW many years ago that sometimes wouldn't start. I would open the engine cover and find the cap off. I thought someone was playing tricks on me until I discovered that the advance diaphram had a leak and allowed a few drops of fuel to enter the distributor. One sparK and ... Pop.. The cap came off! The fix was to replace the leaky one and put a loop in the vacuum line to prevent the fuel from getting to the diaphram and deteriorating it .

Sometimes ya gotta think outa the box.

[Deleted User]

Hi---Years ago a friend of mine had the very same problem with his 50 Ford. It turned out that he was not installing the cap in the correct position & had it canted a bit which would not allow it to seat properly. This may be worth checking out. Good luck.

junkcarfann

Try another distributor if you have one.

harry54

That's my plan... going to change out the distributor.. I'll let everyone know how it works out... thanks to all....