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I recently purchased a 1984 BRAT with 291xxx miles on it. Runs great, drives great, not really much rust at all. (Came up from El Passo Texas last month). My issue is with the distributor. Im a GC Impreza guy, so I really am not familiar with distributors. While running, I can hear audible clicks and clunks coming from inside the distributor cap. If I place my hand on it I can feel it shake and jump. It still runs absolutely fine, but it has the noise, and the Tach jumps with the noise randomly. I took the cap off the distributor tonight, and everything seemed tight to me, although I could be overlooking something silly. Any thoughts on this? Ill try to get a video up soon so you all can see what I mean with the tach. Any help is much appreciated!

A dis cap and rotor are going to be cheap enough that I would just start out by replacing them. You should be able to get them for under $20.

They did use different distributers throughout the years. I would suggest taking them along to the parts shop to compare with photos.

Ok cool, I have the day off today, Ill head over to the auto store and see what I can figure out.

if your tach is jumping, you will need to shortly be looking for either a rebuilt or new distributor, or pulling yours apart to rebuild. the bushings wear out in them, and cause side to side and up and down play. this play is what's causing your noises and jumpy tach. eventually, it will get bad enough to keep it from running correctly

Ok, thats what I was looking for :p Im new to the whole distributor thing, where do I find these bushings? Is it just in the cap, or is it further down the shaft? I'm just tying to figure out if I'll need to re time it after, I know the cap can come off without having to re time it, I just dont want to put a new distributor in, then can't drive it somewhere to get it timed lol. Also, all I can find is either the cap, rotor, or whole unit. Do you know where to find a rebuild kit? Im sure I can figure out how to but a few bushings on it.

the bushings are down on the shaft under the reluctor and module. I believe you have to pull it out to rebuild. you can find rebuilt ones on eBay sometimes. you also may want to check with RetroRoo in CO ( http://retroroo.com/) . Shawn there may have some good ones available.

timing them is pretty easy, and you can usually get it pretty close if you pay attention to where stuff is. the "How to Keep Your Subaru Alive" manual is a good one for step by step instructions. there used to be a PDF copy floating around the interweb....

Thank you! I just was looking on Rock auto.com, and they seem to have everything I could possibly need. Heres the link to the page I'm looking at, under 1984 BRAT Ignition. I se the top distributor is only 118, and the rest are almost 200 or above, Should I be weary of the cheaper one? Also, I see a brass bushing for $5 and change, is that the only piece I need? Thanks again!!