Oil Leaking from Distributor

[CASAPilot]

I have an oil leak on my 78 Spider that's been worsening recently, it seems to be coming from the distributor, at a point an inch or so up the distributor shaft from the small gasket at the engine block. It's not coming from the distributor-to-block gasket itself but I've been told that could still be the culprit. I took a picture of the general area, as you can all see it's been dripping onto the muffler which sometimes makes for a nice puff of oil smoke rising through the hood after I park the car:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bTx5SA ... p=drivesdk

I'm taking the car to get properly looked at on Tuesday regardless, but I figured I could at least have some replacement parts on hand to drop off with the car. What might need to be replaced to solve this problem?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

You're right in that a common source of leaks is the circular gasket between the distributor flange and where it goes into the cam housing, but that area looks OK (admittedly, hard to tell from the picture).

It seems like you have a lot of oil on the two wires coming from the distributor, and so one possibility is that the oil is coming up from the center shaft of the distributor and then leaking out of the two holes where the wires go into bottom of the distributor.

Another common oil leak area is the two upper exhaust manifold bolts (or studs). Some of them go directly into an area where oil pools in the cylinder head, but the leaks from these are usually down the side of the block, not on the heat shield for the exhaust manifold.

My suggestion is to clean off all the oil with a degreaser, then check periodically to pin down where it's coming from.

-Bryan

[markko]

I had a similar issue on my 78. No problem, I thought, I’ll just replace the small circular seal inside the distributor. To do so, there is a pin in the distributor shaft that can theoretically be punched out. Mine simply could not be budged, and in the process of trying, I somehow damaged the shaft so that the distributor could not be reinstalled. When I called one of our suppliers to inquire about a replacement, I got the distinct impression that this was a common story. Anyways, I bought the new electronic ignition system and couldn’t be happier. I see from your picture that you have the original style of distributor (ie. with condensers. If you can’t solve the leak, the electronic upgrade is well worth it.

[CASAPilot]

I had a similar issue on my 78. No problem, I thought, I’ll just replace the small circular seal inside the distributor. To do so, there is a pin in the distributor shaft that can theoretically be punched out. Mine simply could not be budged, and in the process of trying, I somehow damaged the shaft so that the distributor could not be reinstalled. When I called one of our suppliers to inquire about a replacement, I got the distinct impression that this was a common story. Anyways, I bought the new electronic ignition system and couldn’t be happier. I see from your picture that you have the original style of distributor (ie. with condensers. If you can’t solve the leak, the electronic upgrade is well worth it.

I was on AutoRicambi and saw a few options, which ones are compatible with the 78 model?

[PaulC]

I had a similar issue on my 78. No problem, I thought, I’ll just replace the small circular seal inside the distributor. To do so, there is a pin in the distributor shaft that can theoretically be punched out. Mine simply could not be budged, and in the process of trying, I somehow damaged the shaft so that the distributor could not be reinstalled. When I called one of our suppliers to inquire about a replacement, I got the distinct impression that this was a common story. Anyways, I bought the new electronic ignition system and couldn’t be happier. I see from your picture that you have the original style of distributor (ie. with condensers. If you can’t solve the leak, the electronic upgrade is well worth it.

Believe that pin is tapered. So if tapping on one end doesn't move it, try the other end.

[markko]

I bought this: https://www.vickauto.com/FIAT-PARTS/FIA ... KU-21-6325.

As the description says, you will also need a new coil and control module. The control module needs a heat sink. For that, I just went to a local junkyard and looked until I found one that more or less fit. It doesn't have to be from a Fiat.

The guys at Vick's were very helpful.

[CASAPilot]

I really appreciate all the help so far. Just from watching the engine run with the hood open I'm pretty sure it's a bad distributor seal. I spoke on the phone with an AutoRicambi rep who seems to have had this exact conversation many times before, he directed me to a relatively inexpensive set of replacement parts that may fix the problem if it's just in the gasket and seal, something to try before I take the more drastic measure of replacing the whole distributor. Electronic ignition is definitely on my list for the future, right now I'm sorting out all the items that need fixing before I look at upgrades.

[geospider]

An idea. take the cap off and look in the base of the dizzy, if oil there, it's coming up through the shaft.
I had this one mine.. replaced seals and bushings. set pin came out with quite a bit of a whack; bit if you look carefully can see which side to work from..

the electronic dizzy would be a good upgrade

geo