Distributor Rebuild

[Gseppe]

Some good (hopefully) info for anyone looking to replace their distributor... Recently, my distributor cap and rotor exploded on my 1981 FI and it appears to have damaged the timing advance mechanism of the distributor in the process. I called all the big auto parts stores in the area, but no luck on a rebuilt one. However, Napa Auto Parts said that they can do an R&R on my distributor. Basically, I take my distributor to their store and they will send it off to be rebuilt. They said it will only cost the price of a remanufactured one ($149.00) and takes 7 - 10 days! It's a Cardone rebuild and comes with 12 month/18,000 miles warranty. I'm taking it in this weekend and will let you all know how it goes after getting it back and installed.

[vandor]

I knew a guy that sent Cardone three distributors to be rebuilt, they did not get back to him for weeks, and when they finally did it turned out they sold his distributors to someone else! They gave him $5 each for them as cores.
Good luck!

[So Cal Mark]

we had the same problem with rear caliper cores. We sent a box of them, were told they didn't have the parts to rebuild and scrapped them without telling us

[AriK]

Incompetent SOB s! How can they pull crap like that and get away with it? In this case Napa is the middle man and they're accountable to produce a rebuilt unit for the customer. Napa won't smear their name for that.

[4uall]

another option is to do it yourself

http://www.international-auto.com/fiat- ... ebuild.cfm

parts are available from most vendors

[Gseppe]

Hey, thanks for the warnings. I'll address each one of them with Napa before leaving my distributor with them. Any more horror stories, please post. Thanks.

[Gseppe]

Update: distributor seems to be OK. Just ordered a new cap and rotor. Putting it in tomorrow.