Rusty reluctor

[Ghoste]

Holy crap!  I looked in my distributor cap today and the whole relctor is covered in a thin film of surface rust.  That can't be normal or good is it?

[JB400]

I don't think so.  Have you had any trouble starting it due to moisture under the cap, like after washing your engine?

[Ghoste]

Car doesn't see rain or get washed under hood, I have no doubts at all that its from humidity.  Starts fine, I just was a little shocked to see that. 

[tracpack440]

I had a MSD set up in one my challengers a couple of years ago. My car broke down close by home. I found the msd unit failed and the reluctor had this surface rust or rusty fuzz all over it. After switching back to the stock set up no more problems.

[Ghoste]

Really?  This car does have an MSD on it.

[charger Downunder]

Now this thread is getting interesting.?

[tan top]

had a rusty reulator too !!  car never sees rain / never gets washed either  

  not covered !! but patches were starting to form &  also on the edges where the spark jumps the gap ,

getting a bit off track now  but !!  only looked in  there cause the motor decided it did not want to fire one day , was  running perfect the day before ,  swapped orange boxes , ballast resistors ,   no spark  ,
swapped point distributor  set up on !! fired straight away  

took  distributor cap off  , pulled rotor arm see whats happening !! magnetic pick up had decided to fall to bits   all by its self  
when you buy a new magnetic pick up  ,  a new reulator is supplied  ,  current one been on there 4 years no problems  no rust
 

[Ghoste]

This one starts and runs fine but it sure looks like it shouldn't when you see that.

[nascarxx29]

Not sure isnt it the air getting ironized causing the rust dust on reluctor

[Ghoste]

Could be.

[tan top]

Not sure isnt it the air getting ironized causing the rust dust on reluctor

thats a point !! could well be !!

also was using  a nos ribbed cap , at the time  ,  on the reluctor that went rusty  , with out the vent in the  top   

[tracpack440]

Not sure isnt it the air getting ironized causing the rust dust on reluctor

That sounds like a good cause.  I havnt looked into that problem since then. I was using the dist cap that came with the MSD dist. Not shure if it had a vent on it.
I have had a  M.P  set up on my charger for three years now. Ive checked the reluctor  several times and its clean.
I still like msd products. I think that for a street car the M.P set up is best.

[Cooter]

WD40 Works wonders for this problem...

[firefighter3931]

Vent the cap and it will keep rust at bay inside the distributor. Common issue with MSD distributors. As mentioned by Cooter above ; hit it with some WD40 


Ron

[tan top]

WD40 Works wonders for this problem...

Vent the cap and it will keep rust at bay inside the distributor. Common issue with MSD distributors. As mentioned by Cooter above ; hit it with some WD40  


Ron

thats true ,   use to do points distributors , any time i checked , replaced points  ,
but never bothered then i went to electronic distributor for some reason  

will do now  

[Ghoste]

So why does the MSD make it happen?