cardone rebuilt distributor autopsy

[wcfvw69]

I recently bought some core distributors to take apart and to restore the ones in rebuildable condition. In the pile was a Cardone unit. They blast the bodies with aggressive media when they "rebuild them". There were other clues that it was a Cardone rebuild as well. I've had a couple sent to me from customers who couldn't make them work correctly. In those units I found worn out points cams, oblong holes in the advance weights, severe wear on the advance weight pivot pins, wrong vacuum canisters and other surprises. Both of those were simply worn out and were shipped back to their frustrated owners.

These Cardone rebuilt distributors are sold at a lot of national FLAPS places, Rockauto and I think Bus Depot. This time, I remembered to snap some photo's of the highlights of this autopsy. Note; this unit had something sprayed on the metal parts internally. A paint of some sort that looks like rust which it's not.

This is the points cam. Where the points block rides, it was just a bit worn down as illustrated by the mic. I mic'd the non worn area of the cam and then the worn spots on the cam face. There is a worn valley on all four lobes that the camera doesn't show. It wasn't new damage, the points block on this unit was clean of dirt or grit. The points block simply wore off whatever the paint/coating was revealing what it looked like when it was assembled

Here's the main shaft and advance weights and their pins. NORMALLY, there's a fiber or bakelite washer under there that the advance weights rest on. The creative assembler shoved some rotor shaft clips there instead. Two of them. As a result, the weights were too high up on their pins and were striking the bottom of the rotor shaft. I forgot to snap a picture of those marks. There were no fiber washers on the top or bottom of the distributor shaft where it meets the distributor body. They replaced them with steel spacers instead. The breaker plate was heavily worn in the pivot area. Finally, it had the wrong vacuum canister mounted on it for good measure.

The only parts that passed inspection was the main shaft. It had almost no wear. The distributor body and the shaft bushings also were good. All these other worn out parts were thrown in my steel recycle bin.

So, Cardone is 0-3 in the units I've disassembled and inspected.
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[tasb]

Bill my Cardone restore test is about 13 days in and should be back soon. I’ve got a post about it in another topic
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Roads Scholar &
1957 Kombi low mileage 36 hp governor equipped M 178 Slow Drag Winner 2014, 2015, 2018

1965 hardtop Deluxe Microbus owned since 1990 M 620 factory 12 v 1500cc

1961 (October)Single Cab- Road Trip Workhorse

[wcfvw69]

[Glenn]

I has a customer send me a Cardone distributor that he could not get to work.

I found worn parts, the incorrect vacuum canister and the drive on 180* off.

I purchased a distributor from me and it started on first twist of the key. He was able to return the the Cardone unit because he purchased it outright.
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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[kreemoweet]

Philadelphia is said to be headquarters location of Cardone (per www.cardone.com). That city is also where Ron from BD said he sourced
the "rebuilt" distributors he was selling (in discussion at http://www.itinerant-air-cooled.com/viewtopic.php?p=217489#p217489 ). At the same time
as that discussion, there was also a lengthy thread here on thesamba.com about another crappy "rebuilt" distributer from BD some fellow couldn't get
to work properly. If BD is still selling those dreadful things from Cardone, then there is no avoiding the conclusion that BD is "knowingly shipping junk"
(Ron's own description). Maybe BD should also start including "orifice salve" with said items to ease those chafing sensations.
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[wcfvw69]

[esde]

[Glenn]

Here's one i saw on ebay.

It's a 009. $10223 and it's yours, they state the "list price" is $221.76

I love the blob of wheel bearing grease and no felt "pill".

Round o-ring and the wire retainer not fully on.

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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[Pruneman99]

[gt1953]

The spring on the bottom is even partially off. Wow.
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Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

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[LucKaS]

Why does the condenser have and extra blade connector? Shouldn’t that be a green wire?
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If only all of life's little problems could be solved with a little PB Blaster and a hammer.

[Zundfolge1432]

Using no name condensor you'd need to fab your own wire with two female spade connections, no biggie just looks weird

[tasb]

[wheel607]

For those of you that care......When I order any parts from any company, I always ask if they use Cardone parts. I have had a 100% failure rate on anything Cardone. I have asked for Ate brake calipers which Cardone pictures and they sent cheap Chinese knockoffs. I have talked with Cardone and the vendors......all of this has been time wasted. Buy from them if you want, they're cheap, but junk.

[tasb]

[hazetguy]

[tasb]

yes, as were the condensers.
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Roads Scholar &
1957 Kombi low mileage 36 hp governor equipped M 178 Slow Drag Winner 2014, 2015, 2018

1965 hardtop Deluxe Microbus owned since 1990 M 620 factory 12 v 1500cc

1961 (October)Single Cab- Road Trip Workhorse

[hazetguy]

[tasb]

I haven't run across too many Jon, but I have a few examples.

Original early coil to condenser leads are extremely rare probably only eclipsed by tires with original German air in them. The wire is only a few inches long and is arguably, probably tampered with more than any other on a VW, Over the years I've come across eight or ten late 1950's distributors that still had a yellow wire attached.

The clincher for me is the two ZV/PAU 4 R 1 that had yellow wire leads attached. These are the first big cap cast iron 40 hp distributors 1959-1960. They both had two metal sleeves attached to the lead wire one on each side of the cast iron body to keep the wire from being pulled out (pushed in) too far so that the rotor or points cam rubs on the wire. Again, these were yellow wire leads.

Don't know what to say about the wire diagrams although, I'd noted the green leads going pretty far back. The earliest diagrams are not in color. I don't take the diagrams as Bible.
_________________
Roads Scholar &
1957 Kombi low mileage 36 hp governor equipped M 178 Slow Drag Winner 2014, 2015, 2018

1965 hardtop Deluxe Microbus owned since 1990 M 620 factory 12 v 1500cc

1961 (October)Single Cab- Road Trip Workhorse

[tasb]

Perhaps I should adjust my statement to read from "should" to "can have yellow wire leads". As far as the DIN circuit spec goes; not sure if the through bolt qualifies as a separator for a circuit, but without a doubt original condensers did have yellow insulted leads clear back into the early 1950's, and as late as the big cap 40 hp distributors.

_________________
Roads Scholar &
1957 Kombi low mileage 36 hp governor equipped M 178 Slow Drag Winner 2014, 2015, 2018

1965 hardtop Deluxe Microbus owned since 1990 M 620 factory 12 v 1500cc

1961 (October)Single Cab- Road Trip Workhorse