Twcwt
09-06-2017, 04:08 AM
Hello all, first post here, thanks for hosting this forum, it looks like it'll prove an excellent resource. I've just purchased a 1991 Beat sight unseen (I used an inspection service to make sure it was in good health). It's very early production (Chassis no. PP1-10038xx), with about 55,000kms.
I was considering flying to its location and driving it home, a two-day journey of about 1200km, partially involving a ferry. Although I was looking forward to getting to know my new car (albeit in a southern hemisphere winter, with the chance of needing chains through some of the passes), I saw the warnings on this site regarding the distributor. The car is very early so I would guess it's likely to have been fitted with the dodgy dizzy.
I'm not sure when the recall was, but the car was imported into this country in 1997, so it may have been missed. The car is relatively low kms, but I still feel it's a bit of a risk and will most likely transport the car instead of driving it home.
My question: has anybody simply replaced the bearing in the distributor, rather than fitting a whole new distributor body? A new distributor here costs a fair chunk of change. I see a few other (non-Beat) Honda forums specialising in 1990s vehicles have come across distributor issues as well, and many just replace the bearing instead of the whole unit. Some examples: http://techauto.awardspace.com/content/distributorexploded.php and https://sites.google.com/site/hondalioness/distributorbearing .
Can anybody see a good reason not to do this? I suppose the trick will be finding the right bearing size. Most of the other Honda distributor bearings seem to be odd sizes, 12.46mm bores and the like.
I am planning to do the timing belt/waterpump/tensioner, camshaft and crankshaft seals, and other belts/fluids in the very near future as well of course. It would be nice to save some money on the distributor however (maybe a 23x difference in cost!).
I was considering flying to its location and driving it home, a two-day journey of about 1200km, partially involving a ferry. Although I was looking forward to getting to know my new car (albeit in a southern hemisphere winter, with the chance of needing chains through some of the passes), I saw the warnings on this site regarding the distributor. The car is very early so I would guess it's likely to have been fitted with the dodgy dizzy.
I'm not sure when the recall was, but the car was imported into this country in 1997, so it may have been missed. The car is relatively low kms, but I still feel it's a bit of a risk and will most likely transport the car instead of driving it home.
My question: has anybody simply replaced the bearing in the distributor, rather than fitting a whole new distributor body? A new distributor here costs a fair chunk of change. I see a few other (non-Beat) Honda forums specialising in 1990s vehicles have come across distributor issues as well, and many just replace the bearing instead of the whole unit. Some examples: http://techauto.awardspace.com/content/distributorexploded.php and https://sites.google.com/site/hondalioness/distributorbearing .
Can anybody see a good reason not to do this? I suppose the trick will be finding the right bearing size. Most of the other Honda distributor bearings seem to be odd sizes, 12.46mm bores and the like.
I am planning to do the timing belt/waterpump/tensioner, camshaft and crankshaft seals, and other belts/fluids in the very near future as well of course. It would be nice to save some money on the distributor however (maybe a 23x difference in cost!).