Changed hei distributor now radio problems

eric32 · Jun 29, 2019

Hello guys I hope this is the right forum but I recently had some ignition issues and had issues of misfiring and had a older hei distributor and when it was running fine I was running a msd streetfire CDI box and my cd player played fine with no issues of electrical interference of any kind. I started to have issues in May and I changed out my spark plugs and cd player still did fine then I changed out my spark plug wires for a set of Jegs performance cut to length wires and cd player played fine and clean with no issues.

I changed out my toggle switch which I use as my 12 volt source for my distributor and thought my msd box was going bad and swapped out to a pertronix digital hp box and still was having issues of misfiring and of cranking and cranking and no spark a lot of times.

Long story short my pertronix box quit working and my old hei distributor the magnetic pickup coil was questionable and I had a spare hei distributor that is brand new and I am running straight from the distributor and no ignition box and with the new distributor installed my truck runs fine now and fires right up but for the first time ever I am getting some type of electrical interference when trying to play my cd player and it does not matter if its the radio or a cd playing or aux source but when the music is playing the peoples voices will start to break up and it has static like sound and never had this before from running a regular old hei distributor except really faintly before with certain performance wires but nothing so bad that it causes the music from my aftermarket cd player to start to garble up and static.

If my engine is not running its just fine. Cd player did fine before and no issues like this even with my problem with the pertronix box and previous distributor with curren jegs wires and ngk plugs. Since I unhooked the pertronix box and shipped it back to summit for replacement and swapped out my distributor for a brand new one and am just running the hei distributor with no external box it now has this problem and I don't know if the plug wires are just very low resistance wires or if the hei wire harness condenser is faulty or what. How can I tell what is at fault and is there anything I can do to fix this without having to buy different plug wires or a different wiring harness condenser?

Never had it like this bad before where it would make the music break up real bad.

LATECH · Jun 30, 2019

Decent grounds come to mind. Be sure Igniton and stereo both have them.

Did the new HEI have a capacitor inside? If so, try changing it out with the old one.

Plug wires may also be causing the issue. Use resistor plugs as well.

Just a few thoughts.

Maybe one of these as well....

https://www.crutchfield.com/shopsearch/noise_suppressor.html

The Axxess one is where I would start If I were to use one.

eric32 · Jun 30, 2019

Found out my issue the rotor tab was not bent up far enough to make good contact with the rotor button and the cap was junk and the rotor was hardly making contact with the cap and I swapped them out and problem solved.

55 Tony · Jun 30, 2019

Wow, I never would have guessed that. Good find.

eric32 · Jun 30, 2019

I would have never guessed that it was what it was as I was thinking the same as you suggested latech and I figured the spark plug wires or the condenser on the distributor was bad and I was google searching as well and spent hours and came across a post of a guy who bought a skip white distributor and described the same problem I was having and the distributor I installed was a skip white one I bought 5 years ago and it was the clear cap version and I read he took stuff apart and he changed his cap and rotor and his problem went away.

When I checked my rotor the tab was bent to far down and when I looked at the cap to check contact the rotor was hardly even making contact on the brass connectors in the cap so that I knew was not good and I took out my old cap and looked at it and the contact pattern was at least an 1/8 of an inch higher then what the clear cap had and while checking things I noticed the clear cap and rotor seemed a lot more flimsy compared to my blue cap and sure enough there was a big difference even though the blue cap and rotor I got from skit white just a month ago but it was still better quality. I will not use a clear cap or rotor ever again as man times when I came across clear plastic it always seems to be flimsy compared to a colored plastic.

Sadly I already bought a inline noise filter before I found out that info but o well I will have it on hand if I ever need it.

eric32 · Jul 1, 2019

Nowadays and when I buy parts I look things over and inspect and when I get a new carburetor even though they say they are ready to bolt on I take the whole thing apart and look at everything and check the gaskets and make sure things look good and machined good before I even slap it on anymore.

This is a learning lesson for me about electromagnetic interference and what its like and wow was it horrible lol my stereo felt like it was going to explode or something as the music would play ok for a second then start to garble up and the noise and static was horrible. I am glad I found that post about that and sure enough looking straight at my rotor straight on you could not even see the contact tab sticking up it was that bad.

Its pretty sad for what we buy in the auto parts aftermarket on how bad it is having to check and you don't know what is going to be sitting in the box and its kind of like every time you buy something its like a cracker jack box and you don't know what surprise might be inside lol.

Quality control for just about every thing we buy is gone and they just throw it together and put it out and worry about quality comebacks later as look at the auto makers and all the recalls they get in the millions.

Changed hei distributor now radio problems

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities