Rich --
I wonder if you couldn't just blow it out (taken out of the car of course) with some compressed air -- and then shoot it with some WD40 -- let that "dry"... it is for water displacement - and does "dry". The WD40 might put a protective barrier on the metal parts (looks like the advance weights are rusted a bit)... toss in a new rotor and a new cap.. and have a happy distributor?
I usually drill (do NOT use a twist drill for this - use a "step drill") a small 1/4" hole just behind the #1 stud in the cap. This "vent" does a couple of things - it lets you check with a timing light on the top of the cap... shows you exactly where the rotor is in relation to the "timing" (rotor firing on #1) so you can "phase" your rotor (if your distributor allows that - it should for EFI)... and it also gives an exit to vent the "static" out of the cap. This "static" is why they went to the bigger cap - ala the GM HEI style... There's another name for the static - but damned if I can think of it right now. MSD even sells a "vented" cap for "performance" applications.
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