United distributor, anyone using?

[Sailing_Faith]

I see the [url]United Distributor on RockAuto.com[/url]

Machined Aluminum Housings
Bronze Oil-Lite Bushings
Hardened Ground Shaft for Concentricity
High-Performance Engineered with OE Fit
Brass Caps & Rotors
Ready to Install
Completely Assembled with all Component Parts

It looks good to me, and for $100 bones it should pretty much eliminate distributor slop issues...

http://www.rockauto.com/info/United/Det ... l?9363.jpg

Anyone tried one?

[dadofanna]

I used one on my wife's 97 GMC G1500 van with the 5.0l v8. I put it in in March and so far so good.

[Sailing_Faith]

I used one on my wife's 97 GMC G1500 van with the 5.0l v8. I put it in in March and so far so good.

Cool, thanks for the feedback. For 100 bucks, with a brass contact rotor and cap included it almost seems too good to be true....

Appreciate the comeback.

[Sailing_Faith]

Package just arrived, the distributor is a work of art... Really nice machine work, little details like radius on curves that would be stress points (completely unnecessary on a distributor, but nice detail).

Anyway, not sure how I missed this but the directions say I need a special scan tool that any error greater then 2deg will set a trouble code that can not be cleared without the tool.

I have a small low speed miss that has resisted all efforts to get rid of it,, would love to fix it before I start my trip.

Any tips?

[Sailing_Faith]

All worked out ok.

First this thing came backed in a stryfoam box that was really nice. I am impressed with the quality.

[Sailing_Faith]

I took the old one out. I made a little video on YouTube to show just how's much slop there was in it. I got so excited I did not make a video of the replacement, but it was really tight.

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HvaWcuaUQyA&feature=em-upload_owner&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHvaWcuaUQyA%26feature%3Dem-upload_owner[/youtube]
Ok, lets just try it as a link...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HvaWcuaUQyA&feature=em-upload_owner&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHvaWcuaUQyA%26feature%3Dem-upload_owner
The cap I put on about 12,000 miles ago is burned all over...


(On edit: video not wanting to work, so I posted it as a link too... Hope that helps,)

[Sailing_Faith]

I keep loosening the pages, just typed up a long post and lost it trying to add the pictures... Going to do one pic per post now.

The inside of the cap looked pretty bad, lots of arcing and sparking going on. A you can see from the video there was a lot of play in the old distributor so I guess with all the rattling around the burns make sense.

[Sailing_Faith]

I just noticed the tabs on both sides of the old distributor were cracked,,, that had to add some slop into the mix.

The cap and rotor I bought from another member here were AC deco, I noticed the contacts to the plug wires were brass, but the contacts in the distributor were aluminum. They were all pretty toasted.

Close up of distributor contact....

The gear on the distributor was pretty warn.

Distributor drive gear...

Ok, so I lied... I just tried all 3 pictures again... Hope it works!

[Sailing_Faith]

For others who will search and come up with this thread, removing the distributor can cause a 1345 code. The (otherwise excellent) instructions that came with the United distributor warned that the scan tool was needed to "index" the distributor when it was reinstalled.

I read several posts here that said they had been very careful to orient the rotor in the same direction as it was in and had no problems. I am leaving in the morning for a long trip and wanted to get this resolved so I took the chance.

I marked the old distributor and rotor as well as using a streight edge to line up the cap with a spot on the motor. I also noted the position of the rotor after removing the old distributor.

By putting the new one in with the rotor starting in the same place the old one had "unscrewed to" it lined up perfectly. I used my datum point to verify the rotor was in the same place and buttoned it up.

I started it, and it ran fine... No codes.

Going to add some covers to the new plug wires in installed and take it for a test drive.

[Sailing_Faith]

I covered up all those pretty blue plug wires with plastic covers.

Wires covered with conduit cover...

Not sure why, but GM ignition systems seem to eat plug wires (ignition parts in general) very quickly. I know I have changed Saturn plug wires after as little as 35,000 miles. I have been using this plastic wire cover (as well as silicone dielectric grease) on plug wires for years now and it seems to help.

[Sailing_Faith]

I just finished a 50 mile test drive.

Man, it is like night and day! I did throw a code, but it was just the random 140 that comes up every once and a while...

Van has more power, idles much smoother at the light, and no hesitation.

I bet this was the cause of my phantom 300 code.

For $100 I would say this was money very well spent.

[cowboydan]

Engines don't cook plug wires, hard driving does. not saying it's a bad thing. I get roughly around 4-5 yrs or 40-45 thousand k out of the generic, 50+ with MSD. Plug wires fail due to blistering and quite frankly, most don't see a need to replace them because they don't see the blisters. Blistering can show ( keen eye/professional ) even before 35000k. If prolonged, a plug wire with a blister will begin to arch ( imo the owner/ professional missed the blisters ). Arching always occurs where a blister once formed. For a plug wire, it's not the core that matters, it's the insulation. there is sooooo much energy traveling through those wires, without good insulation, you will loose current flow and have a rough running engine with poor mileage, and you run the risk of extreme shock even if the sheath looks like it's intact. Dc shock is way worse than an ac shock... wait.... nope, they are both bad! I also put loom on my plug wires, I went with red though, it goes with the MSD coil

[Sailing_Faith]

Why would anyone think of usingthe OEM distributor as a replacement?

[Sailing_Faith]

***** UPDATE. Do not buy!!!!!!!!!! *******

So, replacing the spider, and thought I would change the cap and rotor while i was in there....

Turns out the "united distributor" does not accept anAC Delco rotor!

The rotor that came on the drive has a small but significant difference in taht the bottom of the screw holes have a locater ridge on the AC Delco, and the United distributor is flat!

Now, I could grind the AC Delco cap down, but then the only thing that centers it are the locator pins,,,, and they are larger then the holes in the drive.

I hope no one else finds out the hard way, if so sorry guys. The machine work is pretty, and the quality of the parts are good, I got around 50k on this cap and rotor.

Just ordered a Skip White unit... Can anyone confirm that they will indeed accept an AC Delco cap and rotor?

[WoodButcher]

I've replaced the cap and rotor on mine many times since I bought it and while I can't say for sure AC Delco fits, I think I used one once or twice, I get the autozone lifetime warranty caps these days.

[Sailing_Faith]

Thanks WoodButcher, for the price (hard to believe they can sell them this reasonably) it seems like there must be a catch>?

[WoodButcher]

None that I could see, I've had it in since '04 or 5 and had no issues. I still burn caps and rotors, the cap that came with it lasted a record two years but I've come to accept those as a maintenance item.

[Leeann_93]

Is this what you wanted to see?

[WoodButcher]

What is wrong with that Leeann?
It looks used but I can't see anything beyond that.

[Leeann_93]

It's a brand new out of the box Skip White unit. He wanted to see if it had the locator holes.