Seems to me we used to do this all the time -- clean the distributor cap
contacts with emery paper.  In a pinch, I've even heard of using a dollar
bill (this works great to burnish relay contacts, by the way).
'
Dave in KC
85 Westy

----- Original Message -----
From: "DaveC" <voicebox@DNAI.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 8:00 PM
Subject: "On the cheap" tune-up

> I was tired of buying $70 distributor caps for one of my cars, so I
> decided to experiment by cleaning up one of them.
>
> I hauled out my Dremel drill and put on a sanding drum. I then took
> off the distributor cap and cleaned up the carbon deposits on each of
> the brass contacts inside using the Dremel/drum. (I didn't touch the
> center contact -- it's carbon, or something, and it looks brittle and
> doesn't have any deposits to clean up anyway.)
>
> I touched up the rotor by hand with just some sandpaper. The Dremel
> technique would be a bit overkill.
>
> You have to be careful how you go at the contacts; the brass is soft,
> and the drill is fast. It is very easy to take off a lot of brass if
> you're not careful. I used the slowest speed on the drill.
>
> Results? It felt like I'd installed new parts. The idle smoothed out
> and there was a bit more power. Very nice. All for 5 minutes work and
> no extra cost (above the cost of owning the Dremel).
>
> I have no idea if the interval between "touch-ups" is equivalent to
> the interval between replacing the cap and rotor with new components.
> Perhaps it is a bit less, I'll let you know.
>
> I wonder how many "touch-ups" I can get out of one distributor cap?
>
> Dave
> --
> Dave Carpenter
>
> "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
> magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke