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Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:57 am

I recently picked up a 205AJ distributor as a spare for my 71 super on the classifieds for about $30 shipped. It happened to have the correct working vac can which I think covers the price I paid.

I did a quick clean on the outside and straightened the arm on the vac can. The end play is about 1mm which is within the spec of 0.5-1.3mm (20-50thou). The shaft does not wobble and turns smoothly. The retard plate seems to rotate ok. Anything else I can check without disassembling?

While I've cleaned the outside and as much of the inside as I could by spraying brake cleaner, I'd like to clean it some more -- would it be ok to clean the distributor in an ultrasonic cleaner with some soap solution?

It is missing 3 screws - 2 to hold the can and one to hold the points. Hoping something turns up in my used screw stash.

Byas

Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:21 am

looks like the points hold down screw has be stripped and has a bigger screw-- really hard to tell- you must use the correct screw or it will stop the plate from advancing.

Fri Apr 28, 2017 8:18 am

Find someone with one of these and set it and test it.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=sun+600+distr...p;_sacat=0

Fri Apr 28, 2017 8:53 am

Yeah! If I was in the same side of the world, I'd send it over to Bill or Glenn to have it rebuilt and tested.

I've taken the points and retard plates off and cleaned and lightly greased them so they slide smoothly.

I'm planning to install it and measure speed vs. advance using my tach light. I recently bought a vacuum gauge as well. So will measure that also.

Byas

Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:06 am

The later distributors like the 009 have an oval door added to the housing for cleaning, lubrication purposes. The 113 905 205 AJ does not have that access point yet. If you had the points plate removed you were only a few minutes away from complete dis-assembly. The points holding screw looks normal to me. I think the poster was confusing the pivot hole for the screw hole.

The length of the screw is as important as the thread size. If your having trouble locating them let me know I will send you some, even to India if necessary.

Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:15 pm

Tasb -- thanks for the very generous offer. I've managed to locate one original screw -- which I can use for the advance plate. I cut 2 hex headed screws to the right length for the can, but would like to have original style for those too.

But, I discovered the real issue -- William called it -- the screw hole on the advance plate is stripped.

My first try is with a thread repair compound. If that doesn't work, I'll have to find a plan B.

Byas[/img]

Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:24 pm

Plan B: find a good used advance plate. I have too many, you can PM me for that too.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 4:43 am

3 times I tried with the repair epoxy. Each time I got distracted with kids and family that I did not unscrew in 5 mins as per instruction so the repair did not take.

Instead I took a another approach. Placed a 4mm punch on the upper edge of the stripped hole and hammered it. Worked my way around the top edge of the hole. My intention was to deform it enough to hold the screw. This did the trick -- though not sure how long (or how many adjustment cycles) it will hold. So, I'll also look at Plan B (pm Tasb).

Tomorrow, I'll mount it and measure the advance. I'm not sure if the condenser that came with it is good or not. It's a German Bosch one. Will try it.

Byas

Sat Apr 29, 2017 4:59 am

Old German Bosch condensers like the one you have there, can last many decades. The top of your distributor looks pretty dry. You don't want to have it drenched in oil or grease but the felt wick under where the rotor sits should get a few drops of oil. The little cup where the ball bearing rides should be lubricated and the shaft that the points cam rides on should receive some grease. Do this at each tune up cycle and your distributor and its components will last a very very long time.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:09 am

How common is it for the advance plate threads to strip? I have a rebuilt 205t and would like to avoid that.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:13 am

Acquire a steel vacuum line if you don't already have one. they will prevent fuel fumes from deteriorating the vacuum advance diaphragm.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:18 am

The 1971 205AJ is a popular distributor for the 34-3 carb powered engine. I've sold several and the owners love them. One thing about that model is they have fiber washers under the advance weights that are often missing or broken. The other issue is the advance weights and their pivot pins always need to be cleaned and then re lubed if they are not worn heavily. after 45 years, the original grease is gone and the advance weights wear the pins heavily. So, your distributor would benefit from further disassembly to inspect it and clean and relube the parts.

Here's a picture of badly worn advance pivot pins on the bottom shaft. Right now, these are not worth fixing as it would require oversize pins to be made driving the repair cost up further. Distributors that I disassemble and are worn are set aside to be rebuilt in the years to come when these distributors are more rare.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:56 am

Frodge wrote: How common is it for the advance plate threads to strip? I have a rebuilt 205t and would like to avoid that.

The 113 T's are an older distributor and the steel is harder so it's not as common. I'd say 1 in 75. The points hold down screw just needs to be snug folks. You need to loosen it from time to time to adjust the dwell. The same goes for the timing clamp. The more you over-tighten the more the clamp gets distorted the harder it is to keep the distributor from moving and changing your timing. :roll:

Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:00 am

wcfvw69 wrote: The 1971 205AJ is a popular distributor for the 34-3 carb powered engine. I've sold several and the owners love them. One thing about that model is they have fiber washers under the advance weights that are often missing or broken. The other issue is the advance weights and their pivot pins always need to be cleaned and then re lubed if they are not worn heavily. after 45 years, the original grease is gone and the advance weights wear the pins heavily. So, your distributor would benefit from further disassembly to inspect it and clean and relube the parts.

Here's a picture of badly worn advance pivot pins on the bottom shaft. Right now, these are not worth fixing as it would require oversize pins to be made driving the repair cost up further. Distributors that I disassemble and are worn are set aside to be rebuilt in the years to come when these distributors are more rare.

Just one more reason why the later distributors are more challenging to restore and need it sooner than the earlier distributors.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:10 am

tasb wrote: wcfvw69 wrote: The 1971 205AJ is a popular distributor for the 34-3 carb powered engine. I've sold several and the owners love them. One thing about that model is they have fiber washers under the advance weights that are often missing or broken. The other issue is the advance weights and their pivot pins always need to be cleaned and then re lubed if they are not worn heavily. after 45 years, the original grease is gone and the advance weights wear the pins heavily. So, your distributor would benefit from further disassembly to inspect it and clean and relube the parts.

Here's a picture of badly worn advance pivot pins on the bottom shaft. Right now, these are not worth fixing as it would require oversize pins to be made driving the repair cost up further. Distributors that I disassemble and are worn are set aside to be rebuilt in the years to come when these distributors are more rare.

Just one more reason why the later distributors are more challenging to restore and need it sooner than the earlier distributors.

So very true. The 034's are one of the more challenging ones to fully disassemble w/out breaking the plastic spring retainers. The mid to late 60's SVA's are simple and as you noted used much harder steel.

I haven't seen any aluminum body distributor that didn't require and need a full disassembly, cleaning and relube. Especially the 70's SVDA's and DVDA's. The advance pivot plates are always gummed up or in some cases, frozen. And we wonder why the vacuum cans on them are blown. :D

One things for sure, these original Bosch distributors work amazing once restored. I just shutter when I see so many engine photo's w/009's matched to 34-3 carbs. If the owners only knew how much better their engine would run when matched to the correct Bosch SVDA or DVDA.... :wink:

Sat Apr 29, 2017 7:58 am

tasb wrote: Old German Bosch condensers like the one you have there, can last many decades. The top of your distributor looks pretty dry. You don't want to have it drenched in oil or grease but the felt wick under where the rotor sits should get a few drops of oil. The little cup where the ball bearing rides should be lubricated and the shaft that the points cam rides on should receive some grease. Do this at each tune up cycle and your distributor and its components will last a very very long time.

The photo doesn't show it, but the felt was soaked yesterday. Will do it one more time. I put grease into the cup of the steel ball and some on the ramp that it rolls one. I did grease the points cam, but not sure which shaft u r referring to. The central shaft that the cam is on is lubed by the felt. Can u clarify? I'm confused.

tasb wrote: Acquire a steel vacuum line if you don't already have one. they will prevent fuel fumes from deteriorating the vacuum advance diaphragm.

Yes, I have the original lines on the car.

wcfvw69 wrote: The 1971 205AJ is a popular distributor for the 34-3 carb powered engine. I've sold several and the owners love them. One thing about that model is they have fiber washers under the advance weights that are often missing or broken. The other issue is the advance weights and their pivot pins always need to be cleaned and then re lubed if they are not worn heavily. after 45 years, the original grease is gone and the advance weights wear the pins heavily. So, your distributor would benefit from further disassembly to inspect it and clean and relube the parts.

IIRC from my BMW 2002tii which used a similar distributor, the upper portion is held with a circular clip under the felt, but the upper portion can be detached by just prying upwards on the upper assy. I assume it works similarly here? Where do u pry? Any risk of damaging the fiber washers while prying off the top assy?

Byas

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Sat Apr 29, 2017 8:48 am

The earlier points plates had more movement which I believe kept them useable longer as the grease didn't gum them up quite so quickly. The movemtn on the SVDA and DVDA plates is fractional by comparison and they seem to gum up more quickly.

The plastic spring retainers get broken when the attempt is made to remove the springs from the weight assembly. The retainers become very brittle with age. The springs need to be removed so that the weight assembly can be fully accessed for cleaning/relubrication.

Your vacuum lines look really good and yes, I was referring to the points cam lubrication.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 4:42 pm

bnam wrote:

wcfvw69 wrote: The 1971 205AJ is a popular distributor for the 34-3 carb powered engine. I've sold several and the owners love them. One thing about that model is they have fiber washers under the advance weights that are often missing or broken. The other issue is the advance weights and their pivot pins always need to be cleaned and then re lubed if they are not worn heavily. after 45 years, the original grease is gone and the advance weights wear the pins heavily. So, your distributor would benefit from further disassembly to inspect it and clean and relube the parts.

IIRC from my BMW 2002tii which used a similar distributor, the upper portion is held with a circular clip under the felt, but the upper portion can be detached by just prying upwards on the upper assy. I assume it works similarly here? Where do u pry? Any risk of damaging the fiber washers while prying off the top assy?
Byas

[/quote]

Boy, that's a great looking engine. To answer your question, you get a wide flat tip screw driver and twist under the upper portion that has the point cam. Leave the felt in place so the clip doesn't fly off, never to be seen again. Your fiber washers under the weights should be changed. They are always broken or very brittle anyway. It's very important to use the Bosch sticky point grease on the advance weight pivot pins so they don't wear themselves out.

Sat Apr 29, 2017 11:48 pm

Based on Bill's pics of the washers and the possibility of the weights being sticky, I decided to go the whole hog (nearly) and remove the weights and have a look.

Here's how it looked under the advance plate. Note there are some built in alignment guides. The hole on the upper left tab next to the spring is slightly larger than the hole on the bottom right tab. And on the right there is a small hole near the central shaft. These can help with replacing the springs in the correct location.

Pulling off the upper cam lobe assy was easy. 2 flat screwdrivers under opposite lobes and levered on the edge of the distributor and the assy popped up easily. Felt was still in there so nothing went flying.

Here's a pic with the upper assy removed.

I pushed out the washer, c-clip and felt from the upper assy.

I then removed the weights after marking the plate and the weight so I know which goes back on which side. The weights and the plate were not significantly worn, which was good. The fiber washers were intact. As was the spacer on the central shaft.

I cleaned and lubed the weight pivots, sliding surfaces and reinstalled the weights and upper assy in the correct orientation. Here's an extract of a table from the Bosch distributor rebuild instructions pdf. (Can the entire pdf be posted to the tech section?)

Putting the clip back on was tricky as the clip was magnetized for some reason and it would stick to the screw drivers. So I used a wooden skewer to position the clip on top of the shaft. Then I used the aluminum handle from an X-acto knife, which happens to have the correct internal dia, to push back the clip. Easy.

Then reattached the springs.

Finally, all back together.

While I got lucky with this distributor being in pretty good shape, I think the original in the car may need some replacement parts. Are distributor rebuild kits avail from VW sources? I need to look.

I know the following kits are avail, though I don't know if there are any differences.

Unless I find VW specific kits, I'll order these.

Byas

Sun Apr 30, 2017 2:53 am

That kit is Very Generic, and Has some parts that we don't need, and not enough of others. A few years ago when I did mine, I sent a PM to Glenn on here, and he sold me all the washers I needed, and a few extras that I just used last month. If he's not selling them anymore, he might be able to provide you with part numbers for an online order that will be explicitly what you need, and for much cheaper.

Good luck!
Robbie