quote:Originally posted by stelios101:
Hi Guy's.
I decided to go for a drive with my son in the few minutes of dry weather we've had in the UK in the last 3 months and low and behold the dreaded pin in the dizzy broke, my son initially thought something severe had happened to the engine as after a back fire a loud metallic noise was heard by both of us but fortunately just the pin.
I am a little confused as to why the pin actually broke because I think the back fire came AFTER the pin broke and not before.
My first thoughts were something caught in the oil pump but unless a small piece on metal is stuck in the engine, I can't find anything in the oil, I think the timing may have been out, now set to 18 degrees and the car seems to pull a little better.
Can anyone shed any light as to why this may have happened could it be that time has simply made the pin brittle (it was double pinned) and I have also double pinned the new one. The dizzy is a Petronix II and although the engine was built around 1999 very few miles few added in the years since.
The backfire was the result of your distributor not turning "in time" with the engine. The reason your pin sheered off is probably due to foreign material being drawn into the oil pump, momentarily stopping it's rotation.When you drop the pan remove the pump and check for scarring on the gears and metal in the pan.