Hi,

I have my dizzy apart for my 1.7 D-Jet and noticed the small braided ground strap was fraying (basically no good). It is the ground between the advance plates.

Is there a way I can solder something in? Regular wire looks like it isn't flexible enough. On a previous thread, The Cap'n says that the plates are probably toast?

It is stranded copper wire, and it will separate slightly in the bend or the middle of the wire. That's normal, but If it's really frayed, it should be replaced. You can solder it, but you need to get everything really clean to get it done so it doesn't come right back off. You're right, regular wire probably won't be flexible enough.

It was really frayed and needless to say, I put slight pressure on it and it was basically in two pieces...

On a bright note, I have a Pertronix Igniter that I took off of an 009--can I use this on my D-Jet 1.7 Distributor?

Gotchya - I think you can still buy a new plate assembly also. With wire. Check Pelican

Check with the Cap'n... he probably has them on the shelf in stock if its a bosch part...which it should be.

Rich

The wire on my 1.7 broke after it was about 3 years old. I bought a bit of braided copper wire from Radio Shack that is normally used for wicking up solder to de-solder connections. I just soldered it to the places where the old wire was attached. It lasted about 30 years afterwards. I clamped a heat sink (used needle nose pliars) on the braidedwire to keep the solder from wicking up the braids, which would make it stiff. JoeO

Great--thanks for the info. I'll head to Radio Shaft and see what they've got...

Looks like RadioShack Desoldering Braid is what may work. A 5' roll (Stock # 64-2090) for $3.99 with the soldering stuff... I'll give it a try--waiting for my distributor lube to grease things up!

I did this and wrote an illustrated thread on it. I'll be damned if I can find it. If I do I'll post a link. The trickiest part is getting the solder to stick well to the plates. The key is getting it good and clean and first tinning the spots where the wire wick will be soldered and the ends of the wire.

There's some info about it and more pics in my blog.

Here's a pic of my finished job:

Here's a pic showing how I tinned the plate. I used a little gas torch to heat the plate from the back side until it was hot enough to melt a blob of solder to the front side. That made it super easy to quickly solder the end of the wick to it (which was also pre-tinned). That's important because that wick is made to suck up the solder, so you need to do it quick to prevent it pulling up so much solder that it doesn't flex.