Oil In A Distributor?

[Lukespeed 10]

Evening all,

 

I took my distributor off tonight to check the id on my cam, and noticed when I picked it back up off the work bench that where the vacuum screws to the distributor housing was leaking quite abit of oil out of it..

 

I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark hear and assume that there shouldn't be any oil inside my dizzy?

 

Any ideas what could cause this? And the best/most cost efficient way of rectifying this?

 

Cheers in advance!

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

Could be a failed distributor O ring oil seal.

 

Have a look at eBay item number 311499015323.

 

It could be a very good £2.70 well spent.

[Lukespeed 10]

Cheers il get that ordered!

 

Is it worth opening it up and cleaning it out with brake cleaner? Or am I best off leaving it be?

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

WD40 would be your best bet.

[hoodygoodwood 71 3 Cars]

I believe there is an internal oil seal on the shaft that runs through the dizzy , with age it lets the oil through . Most of the dizzys I have opened up are wet with oil inside , I had one rebuilt by H+H a while ago and the shaft is stiffer to turn so I assume they replace this seal and it is now doing its job .

Not sure how much the oil will affect the operation of the distributor .

The external 'O' ring is often in pieces and will certainly cause oil to leak down onto the gearbox , as said they are cheap and fairly easy to change .

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

I had this on a 205 GTX, the oil was managing to drip into the clutch from one of the screws in the side of the dizzy. The clutch was slipping so I had it replaced only for the new one to start slipping after a week or so, that's when we niticed the oil on the underside of the dizzy. It was the internal oil seals which meant a new dizzy, if the o ring seal goes it just seeps down the side.