Pick up coil removal.

[bodean]

My son owns a '93 S10 Blazer with the 4.3 L engine. The pick up coil in the distributor is shot. How do I remove it to replace? What holds it in? Parts house says distributor has to come out. Tell me that's no so.

bodean

[mudseeker]

yup, gotta remove the distributer. have to tear down the bottom end of the distributer so you can remove the shaft to get to the pick-up coil. just make sure you mark the location of every thing with a grease pencil so you don't spend an hour trying to get your timing right.

[RAMSLAM]

There is a little dimple on the bottom of the distributor gear. When you reassemble the unit the rotor has to point towards that dimple.

[wojeepster]

It was the same horrible adventure with a friends ford truck. We had to pull distrubutor and take it completely apart to replace pick up coil.

[49er]

Greetings,
Should'nt be that hard to do.

The thing that helps me the most when pulling the distributor
out is to be sure to set the engine at zero degrees, top dead center
and firing on number one .

Then mark the distributor for rotation,
and the rotor for location in the dist.

After the dist. rebuild, just put everything back where it was,
no timing problems.

kent

[bodean]

Thanks, works like a charm now.

bodean

[bodean]

Well, it worked for a short period, but wo'nt start now. It's been having an intermitent no spark problem. Sometimes you got spark and sometimes you don't. Once it's running, it stays running, but it may or may not restart if shut off. You may try and start it 10 times, and it starts right up 10 times, and then again it may take 10 times to get it started. So far we have replaced the pick-up coil, the wires, cap, rotary button, plugs, and oxygen sensor. When it does start, it runs much smoother now, but still has the occasional no spark. The coil was replaced also and the ignition module checked. Got any ideas on this?

bodean

[mudseeker]

it it stays running when it does start then i would suspect that you have a bad connection at the starter. does it still crank when you attempt to start it?

[49er]

Greetings,
Why go to all the trouble of dissmantling the
distributor, and not changing out the ign. mod at the same time???

If it checks out ok, but there is still an intermitant
problem, it could be right there.

Another simple test to make is to set up a "black box",
or a "test" ign. system.
We used to use allagator clips, and moved them from car
to car, but it could be left under the hood too. just tie wrap it up.

Run a jumper wire, with a fuse or circut breaker, to a
handheld switch, another short jumper to a pushbutton, one wire
from your switch goes to the "hot in" at the dist. , the push button
wire goes to the "start" solonoid.

Put these in addition to the stock wires.
Now you have a way to start the engine while under the
hood, and have bypassed all of the stock wiring.

If the engine still stops, or won't start, the problem
must be in the dist.

If it starts every time, but won't when you use the
key, there must be something to find in the key switch or stock
wiring.
kent r

[bodean]

49er, the ignition module is removeable w/o dis-mantling the distributor. It was checked 10 times in a row on two occasions by Auto Zone. Passed every test. Does'nt mean it's still not the cause though, just unlikely. I'm going to try tracing the wires to the distributor to determine if it is getting fire to it from the ignition switch. It turns over everytime but has no spark. This 1st began to happen a few months back, but only on rare occasions. We just thought that the feul pump was getting weak. But then it became more and more often, and now it will only get fire about 1 in 20-25 tries.

Replacing all those parts was not a waste of time and money because it needed them anyway with 140K miles on it. The pick up coil was in sad shape because it literally fell apart in my hand when removed. It looked like it had been fried.

bodean