QuestionJohn,
Great site! First a little background: My Disco affectionately called Black Betty just gave me the first real break down since I've owned it. It suddenly lost power, made a high pitch whine whenever I hit the gas, and was overheating, all while traveling uphill on the interstate going over Vail Pass in Colorado. By the time I reach the top of the pass and coasted down Black Betty seemed to be running fine. To be safe I had her towed to a mechanic. After many tests they were able to tell me that I needed a new distributor. They were lucky enough to find one in decent shape and they installed it. This got Black Betty back over the pass and to my garage. I have since then installed a new, cap, rotor, ignition wires, and plugs. The mechanic also pointed said my catalytic converters were shot by rattling noise you hear when the car has been running while. I have since then ordered the replacement y-pipe. Now to the questions:
1) Does this seem like the logical fix to what caused the break down?
2) Any tips for or instructions for installing the cats would be appreciated.
Thank you very much for your time and hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Adam
AnswerI believe there is more to the story than just a distributor, but I can't say what without seeing the vehicle.
There is no special trick to removing and replacing the catalysts other than to say the studs often break, so it can be a 3-4 hour job even though it's not technically challenging.
Best of luck to you!
John Elder Robison
Check out my car blog at http://robisonservice.blogspot.com
