4k dizzy destroyed itself

[Nico89]

Drove my kp61 a total of 25 meters from the back of the shed into one of the bays to sort some exhaust work, and upon trying to restart it, the engine seems to ignite on one cylinder every once in a while but never starts and sometimes backfires out of the carb. Upon further inspection, I found the dizzy cap misaligned and the rotor had chewed all of the contacts, but 1 of them is especially bad. After seating the cap properly I tried to start it again but the same thing happened. I'm getting a new cap anyway, but I thought it'd at least start and run very rough or do a little more. Does this just sound like a cap issue or something else? Car has a lumpy cam and shaved head but apart from being a pain to idle, it's been a pretty reliable starter every turn of the key

[JustHarry]

All cams have lumps 

[tortron]

Check the distributor shaft for wobble/side to side play. Possibly the bushes/bearings in it are worn out.

[ajg193]

It's really hard to tell the condition from the photo.

The contacts in the distributor will wear over time regardless. What does the rotor look like? If it struck a post from the cap being misaligned it will probably have shorn off the alignment key and will be pointing in the wrong direction.

If that happened you will need a new cap and rotor - it probably just got knocked when you were doing work on the engine.

If not that then it could be that your points and condensor need to be replaced.

[Rhyscar]

Yeah chuck a new cap on, get aligned correctly and it should run. I'd replace the newly toleranced rotor too. But the root cause is the bearing the rotor runs on being worn out. They are all sloppy at this point and I haven't seen if they can be refurbed. 

So you may find that with the new cap, 1 still makes contact. 

 

old 4k Dizzy's suck. 

 

[tortron]

3 minutes ago, Rhyscar said:

They are all sloppy at this point and I haven't seen if they can be refurbed. 

Lathe and oilite bushing usually works. I had the same issue. The shaft is generally ok but the body gets worn egg shaped

[ajg193]

42 minutes ago, Rhyscar said:

Yeah chuck a new cap on, get aligned correctly and it should run. I'd replace the newly toleranced rotor too. But the root cause is the bearing the rotor runs on being worn out. They are all sloppy at this point and I haven't seen if they can be refurbed. 

So you may find that with the new cap, 1 still makes contact. 

 

old 4k Dizzy's suck. 

 

I've put them in the lathe in the past and cut out the original bushing and replaced with a pair of sealed bearings. They work perfectly after that but it is a bit of a faff.

[azzurro]

reading OPs post again, "found the dizzy cap misaligned" seems to suggest someones put the cap on wrong last time, being the cause of the rotor to chew up the cap and resulting in the immediate no-run shituation (been there!)

Hopefully a new cap and rotor is the minimum for a 'fix', at least in terms of it being no worse than it was before the dizzy cap got smashed up.

Fingies crossed the long term maintenance and design improvements suggested for flogged out old shit would be scope creep for fixing it today.

[Nico89]

On 20/07/2026 at 09:24, Rhyscar said:

Yeah chuck a new cap on, get aligned correctly and it should run. I'd replace the newly toleranced rotor too. But the root cause is the bearing the rotor runs on being worn out. They are all sloppy at this point and I haven't seen if they can be refurbed. 

So you may find that with the new cap, 1 still makes contact. 

 

old 4k Dizzy's suck. 

 

Have ordered a new cap and rotor combo, rotor shaft has a slight amount of play but im guessing the root cause was the vibration and a loose retaining screw (optimistic thinking). It was running fine before Saturday, I checked all 4 cylinders for spark and all checks out but im guessing the timing was out. Definitely sounded like it wanted to start more when the cap was seated properly but it still didn't catch.

[Nico89]

On 20/07/2026 at 08:09, ajg193 said:

It's really hard to tell the condition from the photo.

The contacts in the distributor will wear over time regardless. What does the rotor look like? If it struck a post from the cap being misaligned it will probably have shorn off the alignment key and will be pointing in the wrong direction.

If that happened you will need a new cap and rotor - it probably just got knocked when you were doing work on the engine.

If not that then it could be that your points and condensor need to be replaced.

It struck every single post but completely flattened one of them haha. Have ordered a new cap and rotor so hopefully it starts otherwise I'm going to rip the 4k out 

[azzurro]

9 hours ago, Nico89 said:

Have ordered a new cap and rotor so hopefully it starts otherwise I'm going to rip the 4k out 

sounds easier than fixing the dizzy wobble

[Nico89]

Ended up buying a whole new dizzy, but this one has dual vacuum advance whereas my old one had a single. How do I go about setting this up?

[ajg193]

Just use the front port and block the other one off. It will probably have the wrong ignition timing curve for your engine though so might be a bit of a slug. They made different distributors for different displacements, markets and cylinder head designs.

[Nico89]

1 hour ago, ajg193 said:

Just use the front port and block the other one off. It will probably have the wrong ignition timing curve for your engine though so might be a bit of a slug. They made different distributors for different displacements, markets and cylinder head designs.

So i originally ordered a 4k electronic distributor cap, went to put it on and found it was wrong. Googled part number on the dizzy on my engine and found that its (probably, not 100% certain) a 3kc dizzy. So I decided to order a whole 4k electronic dizzy to fit because I couldn't find a dizzy cap that'd fit my old one.

I'm thinking that there may be something with the lumpy cam timing that made a 3kc dizzy better for the engine but im unsure

[Nico89]

New dizzy didnt fix the issue, im starting to think the plugs are too fouled. I checked spark and it was fine but may not be sparking under compression? If its not spark plugs, then I'm definitely ripping the engine out and chucking a 4age in it

[Rhyscar]

Check the compression before you go any further. Could also be bent push rod. 

[Nico89]

7 hours ago, Rhyscar said:

Check the compression before you go any further. Could also be bent push rod. 

Checked the valve train and all seems good, figured i should check spark and found no spark with new dizzy so might be coil. I've got my compression tester and multimeter at the ready for tomorrow after work

[ajg193]

I've had one before where the coil developed a fault causing the high voltage to spark over the casing back to a low voltage post, that resulted in a no-run condition or at best running really poorly with no power at all.

I presume the new distributor is an electronic one? They will be a bit harder to troubleshoot than a points type.

Have you referenced the 4K repair manual? https://drive.google.com/file/d/15dZ1wtk2zQIBpKUSEzYloryFCwhDOkZj/view?usp=sharing

[Nico89]

Just carried out a cold compression test, pretty happy with results:

Cyl 1: 159psi

Cyl 2: 160psi

Cyl 3: 159psi

Cyl 4: 157psi

The MSD blaster 2 coil I have looks ancient, tested the primary resistance at 0.7Ohm which is within spec, and 5.72Kohm at secondary which is specified at 4.5kohm. the coil was warm. The car did try it's best to sputter to life when I first turned it over with the new dizzy and old spark plugs, but was running on what sounded like 2 cylinders and since then hasn't even caught on a single crank.

[ajg193]

Is your firing order correct and is the distributor timed correctly to the camshaft?

 

1-3-4-2

Rotor aiming at #1 post for TDC compression (easy to get this 360 crank degrees off if you don't check both valves are closed)