Optispark stops playing

Heading home Last Sunday from the Badass meet I was accelerating up a hill and the engine stopped with a loud bang.

I had the car towed home.  Starting with the easiest parts to check. First I swapped over the ICM and Coil from a running car. After that didn't work I proceeded to follow the diagnostic steps as outlined in the FSM. I confirmed I had no spark but did have signal to the injectors as verified by use of a noid light. Documented rotor failures and a backfire at the moment of death made me suspect that something had gone wrong inside the Opti.

So I dove in.

As soon as I freed it from the engine there was the tell tale sound of loose parts inside. As some would say its a distributor not a baby rattle.

With some serious luck all four screws came out intact.  

Lifting the cover I was able to see the following.

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The rotor screws had backed off and were laying in the bottom of the housing.

There was minimal damage to the rest of the distributor only a broken locating pin on the rotor to show for the event.

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I inspected each part carefully and then re-assembled it this time using Loctite on the rotor screws. I then bench tested the Opti to make sure it was good to go.

I hope to have it re-installed and running later this week.

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