83CJ701DakRT
New member
1046876
Recently I was having problems with my 258 after I got it back from the paint booth. The starter solenoid was melting down and I was only getting spark when the starter first engaged and when it disengaged. Well after tracing wires and reading up on everything I could get my hands on, there seemed that there wasn't a solution. I even had a couple mechanics look at it and they were stumped. Well my solution to the problem came in the form of a new distributor out of a 1973 Matador and the matching cap and rotor. This distributor is a points type distributor with a single wire hook up. The wire from the distributor hooks up to the ground (tach) side of the coil. You need to make sure that you set it to TDC (top dead center), the rotor should be pointing towards 1 o'clock. Use a 1/2 inch wrench to remove the locking plate on the base of the distributor and twist the distributor while pulling upwards. With the old distributor out put the new one in, but if you try to install the new distributor with it pointing at 1 o'clock it will not line up with the oil pump. You have to turn it back 2 teeth (counter clockwise) to get it to line up. When you set your timing the vacuum advance will be resting against the block. To resolve this problem you can move all the wires on the cap one (counter closkwise and set your timing accordingly. This set up only cost $37 for the distributor, and $15 for a lifetime cap and rotor. With this setup your electronics are not prone to water failure and you can fix it easily on the trail. Make sure your points are set at about 20 thousanths, mine were pre set. This swap only took me about ten minutes to complete and it fires up like new again. I hope this information helps those in need..... Mikey[addsig]
Recently I was having problems with my 258 after I got it back from the paint booth. The starter solenoid was melting down and I was only getting spark when the starter first engaged and when it disengaged. Well after tracing wires and reading up on everything I could get my hands on, there seemed that there wasn't a solution. I even had a couple mechanics look at it and they were stumped. Well my solution to the problem came in the form of a new distributor out of a 1973 Matador and the matching cap and rotor. This distributor is a points type distributor with a single wire hook up. The wire from the distributor hooks up to the ground (tach) side of the coil. You need to make sure that you set it to TDC (top dead center), the rotor should be pointing towards 1 o'clock. Use a 1/2 inch wrench to remove the locking plate on the base of the distributor and twist the distributor while pulling upwards. With the old distributor out put the new one in, but if you try to install the new distributor with it pointing at 1 o'clock it will not line up with the oil pump. You have to turn it back 2 teeth (counter clockwise) to get it to line up. When you set your timing the vacuum advance will be resting against the block. To resolve this problem you can move all the wires on the cap one (counter closkwise and set your timing accordingly. This set up only cost $37 for the distributor, and $15 for a lifetime cap and rotor. With this setup your electronics are not prone to water failure and you can fix it easily on the trail. Make sure your points are set at about 20 thousanths, mine were pre set. This swap only took me about ten minutes to complete and it fires up like new again. I hope this information helps those in need..... Mikey[addsig]
