what the hell happened to my dizzy cap and rotor? never seen damage this bad

[Tripwire]

jeep was running rough and occasionally dying....said to myself - self, you have not done a tune up in a while. stopped at mom-pop and bought the dizzy stuff and plugs...

yanked the cap and this is what i found in my 40 years of working on cars i have never seen aluminum terminals melted away this bad ( usually use brass ones) and what he heck is the black spooge with a grease type consistency on the button and rotor? zoom in on the terminals - CRAZY !

MSD ignition + wires, stock Dizzy, plugs gapped to .045

I dont have a app to post photo's anymore and i'm not on social media, can I send someone 2 pics to tack on to my thread please? if so PM me

steve

[Theodore]

Posted on Tripwires behalf:

[Tripwire]

Thanks Man !

[goldhammer]

I'd guess the MSD is putting out too much juice for the aluminum terminals to handle and melting them.

Black gunk might be burned grease from under the center button from when it was made, (sometimes done to keep button from binding up).

[oregonphil]

That is NASTY looking. Goldhammer's answer sounds good to me. MSD used alum in there? They are really cutting costs. I have seen alum in cheep generic caps, but I've always thought MSD made quality parts.

[goldhammer]

Think he meant a stock cap and rotor, not msd.

[oregonphil]

You are correct. I misread it.

[Dave Jeeper]

Reducing your plug gap may help reduce the voltage buildup in the distributor and the severe damage. Try using 0.035" gap, the voltage required for the spark to jump a shorter gap is lower than the voltage required to jump 0.045". I would also recommend using a cap and rotor with brass terminals.

[Tripwire]

Ok, reduced the gap to .040 (new plugs)....lets see what happens - still wonder what the black spooge is in the rotor

[Dave Jeeper]

Did you have any oil get into the distributor? Sometimes it will come up from the the engine and it could dissolve the carbon button in the center of the cap.

[Dave Jeeper]

Or, more likely the center electrode is melting.

[Brynjminjones]

Is there any side-to-side play in the distributor shaft?

My Dad's 4.0 Grand Cherokee was running really rough earlier this week. I discovered that the shaft had so much play, it was causing the rotor to impact the points.
It had only just started, but the damage didn't look too dissimilar to yours.

[rang-a-stang]

Looks like someone was cooking some meth in your dizzy! Maybe there was a gnome in there using your rotor to heat up his heroine?

[oregonphil]

Busted! Yep, that's how they do it up in WA. Cops just haven't figured it out yet.

[rocklaurence]

I bet the Spooge is some ones attempt of Dielectric grease