omatter67

Hey all,

I made a posting yesturday but still no response. Can anyone help me, I have a bucking/hesitation/jumpy problem and I already changed the D- cap and rotor and water pump and still having the problem. I here word of problems with OPTI spark but I'm not sure if thats what I'm having. A dealership says faulty Distributor, and that I need to replace but I think it's something different. Any Advise please help.

Car will run good for like 10 min then when it warms up a lil it starts to buck and jump Rpms alot then I have a loss in HP. It almost seems like I it's misfiring. I'm going crazy what can I do?

Lyle A

Did they scan the PCM and come up with low res pulse codes? If so, they are correct in the distributor diagnosis. I think it's best to replace the whole thing if you pull it. Your symptoms are like a failing opti but it could be other things. Scan the PCM again for a better idea of what's going on.

omatter67

I'm not sure what all readings they got but I know that they said that there getting a hard code on the distributor and the next thing they said was $600.00 just for part then 3 hrs labor. If I do anything it will be myself but I don't want to replace the DIST till I know thats what it really is. I'm not too educated on that opti stuff so Can't diagnose it as that.

Mat

Lyle A

If you are mechanically inclined, it's not a real hard job. If you go at it hard it can be done in as little as 4 hours and as much as 8. You can get new optis from Jason Cromer or Dal Slabaugh (spelling) for around $326. Then a couple dollars for water pump gaskets and antifreeze. You could tryt ot get someone to scan it again but if they said it was the opti, it probably is. An opti signal test might not help with the car running. Has you water pump leaked?

omatter67

Lyle,

Thanks for the info man, Water pump was originally diagnosed and that the cap had moisture in it so I went ahead and bought a new w-pump cap and rotor and replaced all of that. The car went about 2-3 weeks and the symptoms came back. Honestly if it is something in the distributor it happened before I replaced all that s*#@. so now I feel like I gotta take all the crap back apart and replace the distributor. Like I mentioned before it was diagnosed as a faulty distributor, but I have no way of telling if the opti is bad,if in fact thats whats causing the car to choke to death. I took it on a drive the other day for about an hour and while on the hwy it just kept bucking at idle speeds. I'm gonna check at night for arching on the plugs but I'm gonna replace them when and if I need to replace the dist.

Lyle A

My water pump leaked on my opti. I changed the pump. It ran fine for a couple days then I had the symptoms like what your having. No opti code though. I replaced both O2's and that seemed to clear it but not completely. Then the problem disappeared for almost a year. And one day, under normal conditions at 40 mph the car died and wouldn't restart. It turned out to be the opti. I did it myself for the affore mentioned price. I had someone here match the quote that I got from Jason Cromer.

omatter67

From what your telling me the best solution to my problem is to accept the inevitable and replace the distributor,wires,and plugs to avoid something happening a year down the road. Now that I decided to take that step is there anything I need to know about replacing the dist in my 93 formula. I have already broken it down to the cap and rotor so the w-pump, h-balancer and all are already off, what steps do I need to take the dist out and is it true that it can only go in one way so I don't have to worry about timing or anything.

94 formula

omatter67

sorry wrong button

93 formula

Lyle A

The opti has a keyed shaft. It is real hard to orient the wrong way. Check shoeboxes page for the 93-94 shaft (http://shbox.com/1/93-94_opti.jpg) and you can see how it looks. Don't force the new one. Take notice of the position of the key when you take it off so you can set the new one in the same place. If it goes on easy, it's on right. don't torque the bolts too tight or they will break. The plugs are a bear. The right side wires go easier if you unbolt the power steering pump. I did my plugs, wires opti and pump in one swoop a month ago. She runs great right now. I hope it stays that way.

indieaz

On a 93/94 the optispark drive is keyed - so it's only supposed to go in one way. So far in the history of my LT1s while having people help me on my car they have managed to put the keyed shaft in wrong TWICE now (forcing me to break the timing cover down again to correct it). So even though it SHOULD only go one on eway you CAN force it in wrong...so be careful you get it on right or your timing will be off.

omatter67

Thanks guys,

I'll see what happens when I give it whirl. The shaft is supposed to go directly in or is there any turning as you push it towards the motor. And from what I can see it's only a couple bolts holding it in?

Lyle A

3 bolts and it should slide in easy. Like I said, take note of the position when you pull it. Take the shaft out of the old opti and slide it in to the cam gear to get a feel of how it fits.

omatter67

And it will come off without having to take the cap off the dist

93 formula

Lyle A

Yes it will.

omatter67

Ive been looking at the shbox.com website and the different parts, well all the vacuum hoses on the optispark I don't have, is there a chance that my set up for the distributor doesn't have the opti-spark stuff or maybe I just disconneted without noticing?I have a 93 formula so whats the differnece if there is one?