firecore distributor issues

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rigger3006

rigger3006

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first time i tried my new firecore distributor car ran rough ,pulled it and found chewd up reluctor blades, put in new reluctor, gaps were 008 to 014, still ran rough, yanked it and put MP dizzy back in, tried firecore again yesterday,same. upon closer inspection found one blade was hitting magnetic pickup 1/4 in. before contact point, is someting bent in there or is my new reluctor a POS? 318 motor and yes the reluctor is installed properly
 
One blade, that means excessive runout, likely bent shaft, or loose bushings.

I dial indicator may be your friend. In general, mechanical distributors are a dissapointment.
 
kinda what i was thinking, shitty part is its brand new, would it be worthwhile to file blades to proper gap?
 
If it is new, why not return it under warranty?

The blades are typically angled in the leading and trailing edges, and if filed down, it is going to change the relative spark timing on that particular cylinder. Can't sy how much without the geometry but it does not sound like a wise thing to do.
 
My thoughts too. ^^^^^^ Why on Earth would you have not sent the thing back? Especially since you have another obviously good distributor.
 
no warranty, bought it lasst winter, not put in til yesterday, and once last year, only get to drive the car 6 months a year in the great white north
 
Did you actually buy this "new" from whatever distributor "is" firecore? If you are on the up and up, here, and have not dropped it or hacked into it, I'd contact the dealer, manufacturer.

Only reason I can think of on a NEW unit, other than manufacturing screw ups, is a bent shaft, probably due to a drop
 
rigger3006 said:
no warranty, bought it lasst winter, not put in til yesterday, and once last year, only get to drive the car 6 months a year in the great white north
Click to expand...

Call firecore and speak with them directly.

Custom Wire Sets & Performance Products warrants solely to the original purchaser and not to any subsequent purchaser, and only as installed on the original vehicle, for which all Custom Wire Sets & Performance Products are to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 1 year from the date of purchase when properly installed.

Pretty simple.
 
i still have snow in my yard !, by last winter i mean 2013-14, its been about 19 months,no i didnt drop it but i sure wanted to throw it... been fiddling with it and now its not hitting the pickup, barely,but the shaft seems to have a bit of sideplay, may just take it apart and see if i can tell whats going on
 
its not the shaft moving its the reluctor, you can slightly rock it back and forth, how tight should it be going on? this one (a standard) slides on real easy
 
Call Rick at firecore...

Explain the situation, they may actually have a fix for you instead of a bunch of people that have likely never had the product in hand.
 
Seriously, call the vendor. My dad has a FireCore in is 440 and it works great. Have pictures ready to email and document what happened.
 
rigger3006 I feel your pain. I had a very similar experience with a small block Firecore I bought through Mancini Racing. I was in direct contact with Firecore the entire time, not Rick (see my return letter below). Needless to say they went silent on me when I tried to work with them. In addition to the items I listed in my letter below was the problem of missing advance springs that I had to have them ship to me. I got my refund from Mancini, minus the return shipping. And I did verify it was not a bent shaft but was the reluctor. And yes I could have fixed the polarity... but that's not the point, this distributor is crap.

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November 18, 2014
Attention: Wes
Return Dept. Mancini Racing
RE: RMA # 3553WR
Defective Firecore Distributor MRE 90430

This letter is in response to a telephone conversation I had with Wes at Mancini Racing. He asked me to document the problems I found with the distributor and include them in a note with my return.

I am returning this distributor for a full refund for the original cost and shipping, and I am requesting reimbursement for my return shipping costs. I received a non-functioning distributor that cost me considerable time, effort and money. I do not want an exchange because based on my conversation with a Firecore customer representative I have no faith that their other distributors are any better. The following paragraphs outline the problems I found with this distributor.

First problem; the gap between the reluctor to pick-up coil varies .003” from the tooth on the pinned side of the reluctor to the tooth on the opposite side. Closing the gap below .008 on the pin side (which creates .011 gap on the opposite side) causes the reluctor to hit the pick-up coil when activating the vacuum advance. Additionally, the gap is not even from the top of the tooth to the bottom of the tooth, it is wider at the top and narrows at the bottom.

Second and most severe problem; the pick-up coil polarity is incorrect and will not work with the stock wiring harness or with the stock ECU or performance ECU similar to the “orange/chrome” box. I became aware of this issue once I had the distributor in the car and attempted to set the timing. This particular problem renders the distributor useless, as currently wired, and causes the timing to advance more than 20 degrees from the actual setting. It took me considerable research, time and money to isolate this problem.

My calls and voice mails to Firecore went unanswered for 2 weeks. When they did contact me they confirmed they were aware of the reluctor gap issue but not of the polarity issue. I told them I would accept an exchange for a correctly functioning distributor, all at their cost of course. The representative told me he would talk to the owner and get back to me within two business days. I gave them three business days and still did not receive a call back.

Thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,
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thanks demon 408,sounds like my issues exactly,odd, i got mine from mancini also, i was put in touch with a canadian firecore rep, he helped a bit with the right way to install my repacement reluctor, still ran like crap so i gave up and put it up for sale, thankfully no one bought the POS!
 
rigger3006 said:
thanks demon 408,sounds like my issues exactly,odd, i got mine from mancini also, i was put in touch with a canadian firecore rep, he helped a bit with the right way to install my repacement reluctor, still ran like crap so i gave up and put it up for sale, thankfully no one bought the POS!
Click to expand...

It is funny you mention the Canadian Firecore rep, the Firecore rep at Firecore USA (HQ Firecore?) referred me to him when I started asking about the advance spring set and if they had any data on the advance curves. Like I said, I went out of my way to work with Firecore.
 
dano said:
Seriously, call the vendor. My dad has a FireCore in is 440 and it works great. Have pictures ready to email and document what happened.
Click to expand...

Call Rick at Firecore. I had bought one of the first that were produced and it had a problem with the reluctor, wasn't pinned in right. Mine sat in a box for a year as well. I called Rick, he sent me a new one, no charge. I put it in and it runs fine. Just call Rick and talk to him, no one else. I would try that before I threw it away.
 
I bought a Firecore RTR distributor from Mancini Racing, received in June. After only 35 miles, the ecu failed requiring AA( UK recovery service) to get me home. Still waiting for replies from emails sent to Custom Wire Sets and Mancini sent 6/18/2015. Ran great for the 35 miles though.
 
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