I guess a big fat spark at 40,000 bolts is pretty hot. Greg Ondayko told me he burned up several caps before he got the distributor phasing correct. At first the spark was jumping too far inside the cap between the rotor tip and contact post.

So that is what they make these things out of these days. Any idea about how much heat it takes to melt it? I will look up the material on the internet.

For the record, the MO-3000 rotor and MO-40 cap seem to work great together. It clearly starts faster, and idles smoother. The MO-40 cap has the brass contacts. Thanks for dinging us about this over the years. This is the first time I have made the effort to got the better parts. It is worth the effort to get both. I had to wait a day for the rotor. I spun the two together on a spare distributor to make sure they did not interfere up in there.

Why do you suppose all rotors are not longer like the MO-3000? Should I go buy a few extras of both the cap and rotor and stock them away? My neighbor, who was over for a party last night was shocked NAPA still stocked the parts for the slant. He was entertained buy the melted cap. I was going to throw it away,but maybe I should leave it on the shelf as a reminder to make sure wires are well seated. In 50+ years of playing with cars this is the first time this has happened.

Here is another BIG thing to take away from this adventure:

The quality of the ignition absolutely effects the AF ratio, or at least the appearance of AF ratio, which is the basis for much fuel tuning. The two are hand and glove. This helps explain why the OEM guys have spent so much time and effort researching more efficient ignitions.It was not so the customer does not have to do as many tune ups in the life of a car, although that is a nice benefit. But, I believe it is so they can meet the demand for better and better economy with more optimal fueling.

Sam

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The cap's not going away any time soon; it's also used on the 3.9 V6 and I think on some AMC applications as well. I quit buying the MO-40 years ago because they were sloppily made (contacts ground off-centre; on one side they were nearly a fully circular slug of brass, on the other side just a sliver). This came to my attention after an MO-3000 rotor snagged one of the insufficiently-ground/too-large contacts and broke almost in half. I sent the cap and rotor to Echlin, who replied to the effect of "Well, duh, yeah, the MO-3000 is longer so you have to make sure there's clearance." BS, BS, BS; they made the damn cap wrong. That was in the early '90s, and every few years after that I'd go in and take a look at an MO-40 and still see the off-centre misgrinding. Eventually I quit looking and switched to the Standard CH-410X (now available as CH-410). Standard now own Echlin; maybe the MO-40s are no longer improperly made.

As for the MO-3000 rotor: Yes, stock up. I don't know if I or anyone else will be able to pull that particular rabbit out of a hat again.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Finished tidying up the wires to the sensors, and fired it up. It started with a bang and AF ratio seems fine still. This means I did not foul anything up this time. The work I did was shortening wires to remove excess length, which meant I had to take each sensor wire lose, trim it and reinstall it in the relay box. Without this, the hood would not close since the extra wires for each sensor was sticking up and over the cowl. All told it was quite a bundle.

There was definitely room for me to mess up something. I labeled all the wires this time since the labels in the relay box are under the wires and cannot be seen without pulling the wire out from the terminal strip. This means now I do not have to trace wires all the way back to the sensor to know what it is. Those little battery powered label makers are great.

I now consider this project done, and put to bed. There was some drama, but it was all an education. Next on the list is to get the MSD back in the ignition, since this entire project was to clear room on the fender for the box. . I will just drive it for awhile now.

Sam

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