Step-a-toe

rather than us try to guess how you got yourself here, can you pull the two outer front covers of the timing belts, find TDC of #1, likely best with only #1 spark plug in, the others out, so you can easily feel compression stroke coming up, look at flywheel to get it on TDC ZERO, show us where rotor button points and how the cam wheels markings appear

the crank's drive cog for the distributor is an aluminum alloy of some description

great stuff . don't you hate being too impatient to try one remedy at a time to know what really fixed it? My guess the stainless screws would not have made a difference on position of distributor changes. I reckon it was the shim trick. don't be a stranger, i am sure we all want to see non distorted pics of your steed

at this stage, I would be measuring the deck height of the top side of the rotor button above a marked point of the dist body while you have drive cog off, refit drive cog, fully engage, bolt down braket snicked up again and measure deck height again. Any difference ? Looking for changes that might affect the magnet and module ring alignment

well, desperate measures .... the body of the distr is certainly grounded to the block and if you ground tested rotor shaft to block etc can't see you finding anything. Are you sure you are not a Honda dude playing with us ? Can we see pics of engine bay and whole body as a captcha thing

i have a few cranks within reach to check with a magnet - reckon not brass, but softer than dist drive gear. Keep up the idea of magnetic issue, I wonder , can you see any change in position of magnet and stator ipositions when you push body home in block? If you have those old heatsink spacers and made up slightly shorter ones, or add a washer to increase module height? I understand that there is a relationship to the ring part of the module to the other bits. Not sure what issues a cracked magnet produces but i do recall someone resolving with fit a one piece magnet after finding two halves in the Hitachi

do you have circuit diagram at all ?

I can only think that why you need earth to get spark when spin rotor while out is that thing that happens between the magnet trigger n gear ...

what if you fit it in fully at a point where what ever adjustment you have to swivel dizzy in place, so not clamped down, but with the trigger components able to do a pass and normally give you one spark? Years back a mechanic mate was trying to get an old four pot Ford Cortina started. The only thing that I changed to get it running was to change his coil from hanging by all its wires and mount it in its coil bracket with that body grabbing stopper of the bracket digging into its oil filled body. Can't explain why it needed grounding. Here, I don't understand why with dizzy out, spin by hand and no earth between dist body and ground that you get no spark. I bet you have tried wriggling the old wires once pushed home? I hope you are young enough to shelve it for another 25years while we nut it out

this happened to Silverbullet on ausubaru - on a freshly built twin carb twin port EA81. It drove him to successfully convert to EDIS and MJ. good suggestion to check the basics

does this each and every time you push dizzy home, works out of body every time ?

the insulating issue - using my experience with this same system in EA82T , would say, not a thing. many years ago people were grabbing EA82 dizzies, chopping the bearing end off the shaft below the drive cog, swapping EA81 drive cog, knock an ear off and installing in EA81. You could likely do same to a series one EA82T distributor?

I once hooked up the EA82T series 1 dizzy along with knock sensor and control box to run on NA. It ran but lacked any real will to boogie. The turbo advance must really be pegged versus NA, so I can imagine an NA EA81 dizzy curve in anEA81 turbo would be knocking its little self out with too much advance.

I hit something there. The whole thing, knock control module and ign module are all powered and earthed up via the coil from memory. I even forgot to hook up the knock module and drove around for months on 12 psi no problems, so the L can run and drive without box,

I started to play with installing a two wire module in place of the 4 pin. Not meant to physically interchange mount wise for starters. When you look at wiring diagram , no earth seems to come into play on EA82

maybe a spacer washer under the brass heatsink spacers might resolve issue once ftited in ?

OK, when you finally push it home, I wonder if the alignment of the two bits changes. If out of block, can you jiggle the shaft up and down to get any play? And if so, does this play change spark to no spark? I wonder if the heatsinking style brass spacers under the module are the same between old and new distributor. Do you still have old one ?

this must be doing your head in. Your reman dizzy came from Rock I suppose, no warranty or outside return warranty period ? That module I believe, was continued on for the 85 and 86 EA82T and someone out there had one for sale when I asked - wanting US$150. An Aussie also said he had one or two but never came up with the goods. All the reason more that I have ventured to distributor less EDIS by Ford and the Megajolt E MK2 method - an adventure I am embarking on now . It is like when you earth out body of dist to vehicle is like you are shorting something without blowing it

that bright, cool white of LED makes life harder trying to read numbers stamped into engine blocks, reflecting too much white light back to the retina. I found a simple $5 bendy USB plug in light at IKEA that gives off a yellowish light. Plug it into a power pack of choice and you have a light that you cannot get in today's torches. I also dip as required first, maybe not count to three, just rely on my vision threshold before the brights go back

I have been reading a lot of forum entries around the English speaking world trying to nut out suitable part numbers, cross referencing to Australian part numbers and identify possible donor vehicle details from our local market for trigger wheel sensor, ign coils and lead sets. Silverbullet on ausubaru used a Ford Fiesta coil that had a 4mm central male pin inside each coil tower and ended up chasing ends to make his own ignition leads. On coil pack choice, Trigger Wheels tells of two types, one and two. Describes type 2 as having central pins , and recommends using type 1. Looking inside the coil towers of type 1 there are almost normal looking size female sockets in brass, with a cone shaped recess hole in below each socket. The external appearance of type one coil towers are that they look squat with external rib - HT lead plugs clip over this rib A US part number for type 1 comes up as FD487. REPCO Australia sell Fuelmiser branded Delphi stickered versions of this for as CC240. The GOSS part number C190 I even found HELLA and HITACHI numbers for this coil In US models this coil seems to be common for 90's V8. In Oz it is rumoured to be one of two coils used for our 5.0 litre V8 AU Falcon range Given the price difference between Oz and US , I will still buy from US and get a greater manufacturer choice and have used 1996 Ford Crown Victoria as the vehicle model in the catalogues. Seems it had one engine choice to simplify ordering. 4.6l V8. Discussing Trigger Wheels recommendation to go type 1, which I am assuming is the shorter clip on coil tower type, we came to the conclusion to continue with "off the shelf" access to parts and not go down same road of sourcing pieces to construct HT leads - mainly due to making right angled boots take the lead. Order a set of leads for a V8 to use their coil ends and cut plug end (easier to do these ends) to suit required length. Had trouble getting cord length data on the individual leads, so if the set falls short of two around 42" length - needed if coil goes where EA82T dizzy lives - for #1 and #3 with a spider inlet - I will consider one coil pack per side. This idea would use short HT leads and only one side of each coil. This would result in spare coil each side in case of a fail ! I think I ordered Crank Angle Sensor from this same model The external appearance of type 2 coil towers are just tall, smooth wall smoke stacks. These are the pin type, identify as FD497, or in Oz CC239 Fuelmiser Delphi, or C220 GOSS as fitted to Ford Focus 2002

I think in recent days, trying to prove someone wrong on the 360 slots being only 180, I counted 60 and was only a third of counting half a wheel. I think there is 360 slot holes

same for ball joint, I reckon similar on the strut I found. I had to reduce the diameter of the bit that drops into the knuckle by about 1 mm of aftermarket EA82 strut into EA81 knuckle

the dimples also remind me that I have been in there as well, and as the components pass through the hands of scrappies in decades to come, they will think "not a bad idea" interestingly enough, when I ordered a spare set of these MT axle seals the other day, the subaru spare parts site called them AT. Double checked with tags of previously fitted to 5MT AWD axles of 23 spline and parts manual - figure they made an error. Don't forget these screw in seal holders also use big blue O rings to seal up as well

done that "leave my high beam on to dissipate the oncoming forgetfuls" bright lights twice now, only to find it was a marked police car - learning a lesson and taking said lesson on board

i mark mine with a short action with say 3mm drill bit, drill a dimple in side of casing beside the fins of the outer carrier, then a dimple in fin next to it. Marks don't wipe away like paint marks do !