Pinto Car Club of America

I got done doing a semi basic tune up on my 1980 Pinto.  I figured I'd go ahead and do the distributor cap, plugs, rotor and wires.  Having almost no money, I bought mostly cheaper parts sourced from AutoZone and Checker.  I don't normally buy cheap parts, but these aren't intended to last for very long - a few months and maybe a thousand or two thousand miles at the most.  Anyway I bought the Dura-last distributor cap from AutoZone.

SO I spent like 10 minutes putting on the distributor cap.  Why you might ask?  Well the Hecho-en-mexico distributor cap machine screws were reversed. 

I'm not sure if it's because they changed the ignition system down the line for the Pinto or if it was just for this particular cap, but the small machine screw was in the spot where the large screw was supposed to go and vice versa.  Luckily I'm fairly meticulous about removing parts from the vehicles I work on and found the problem pretty quickly, but it was mildly annoying to screw around with for 10 minutes.

I guess the moral is that you do in fact get what you pay for.  But what are you going to do.  When you're broke, sometimes you just gotta work with what you can get your paws on.  :D

I can vouch for that!

I have two extra caps and roters sitting in my box o' parts. One is a Borg Warner and the other a Niehoff, both of which were used less than 1000 miles. Why? I did a full tune up a few months between and kept the old ones just in case something happens. It also never hurts to have a spare. :)