Put the spark back with a Distribution Cap for £6

I'm slowly starting to make some changes to the car, and narrow down the causes of it stuttering at about 3-4,000rpm.

Although one of the likely causes is the carb, it makes sense to check and overhaul some of the other possibly reasons. And with new HT leads, and the spark plugs checked, next on the list was the distributor.

It looks as if the original Nissan distributor was still in place 15 years later, and it was definitely starting to show it's age! And being a weekend, the nearby Nissan dealership parts department was obviously shut by the time we'd got to the stage of needing a replacement.

So it was off to the local 'motor factors', and stockists of an almost infinite supply of anything and everything. I was expecting quite a large bill, but after comparing catalogues and specifications on a range of distributor caps, and putting them next to the original (Top Tip: Remember to take original parts with you if possible - makes it a lot easier to find a similar alternative!), we settled on what we thought was the right part.

It cost a whopping £6!

And since fitting it, the problem hasn't vanished completely, but it's a lot, lot better. The car starts more easily, picks up from low revs in a much better manner, and has only stuttered in really cold and damp weather.

And that's for a total cost of £6. In fact, the car really doesn't owe me that much in spares so far. I should really have kept a closer record, but it roughly stands at a jubilee clip (And an RAC call out), a distributor cap,four exhaust mounts and fitting (£24), a Haynes manual, and lots of cleaning products!

So £30 for spares and labour, about £14 for the manual, and some shampoo. Not too shabby!

If you've got a 1.6 carb Nissan 100 NX, the most 'cost effective' distributor cap, and the one that I have, comes from Commercial Ignition, Catalogue Number XD243.