WAI DST3890 Distributor (And Other Chinese Variants)

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12many

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Just thought I’d post some pictures and give some details on these newish Chinese versions of the Chrysler distributors. They’ve been around for a while but I’m just not seeing much for good pictures or info on them from end users so. Not looking to start a debate about China or soliciting posts about “just get this or do that etc” these have been available for some time and are a viable option to be considered by many. At first glance they look nice. Pretty good reproductions or copies. Look similar in all the obvious areas. The only deviation from the oem’s is how the reluctor and governor assembly is retained on the shaft. A screw is used on these vs the original wire clip. The reluctor does away with the typical pin. The oem pickup/plate assemblies, rotors and caps interchange. The various screws are all the same as the oem. Everything is the same so interchanging things with old or NOS pieces will work. I don’t have an oem reluctor to see if it fits on the shaft but other than that.... On my remanufactured oem distributor one of the weights spring pins somehow came out, and ultimately caused the pickup to contact the reluctor and resulted in things getting mangled up. Pulled out the FBO plate, springs etc to swap over to this new version. Installed an nos Filko pickup assembly, rotor and correct tan cap. Here’s some pictures of things:

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When using the FBO plate you will need to install a small washer (lock washer in my case) under the flat washer on the screw so when you tighten to secure the (whatever the part is called!) there’s no binding on the shaft. See closeup of how the governor? is slightly raised in relation to the shaft where the screw goes. Otherwise it all goes together easily like with the OEM, and installing the reluctor is actually easier with no pin to fiddle with. How it all works and holds up remains to be seen but hopefully this all will help anyone pondering whether or no to try one of these out. Using American made NOS pickup assembly etc gives me more confidence at least :)

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looks like a small block, but the pick up coil is for a big block !

The gray & black wire pick up is for BB and the orange and black wire pick ups are for small blocks. It has to do with the direction the coil is wound vs the rotation of the dist.
 
I’ll have to re-look into that as I’ve got a bunch of those nos Filko pickups in the boxes with all the same part numbers that are for the small blocks. Used one of those on my previous distributor for over three years but can’t recall the wiring color. Thanks for the heads up
 
brian6pac said:
looks like a small block, but the pick up coil is for a big block !

The gray & black wire pick up is for BB and the orange and black wire pick ups are for small blocks. It has to do with the direction the coil is wound vs the rotation of the dist.
Click to expand...
I’ve never heard of that but had to search a little to see if that is so. I’ve got the same coils in use on a 318 and a 360 and they are the same as what is shown with the gray wire, and looking at various listings Standard as an example, for small and big block they use the same part number: LX102 Not sure where the orange vs gray thinking comes from, maybe an old wives tale? Who knows? I just hope the distributor works out and lasts.:rolleyes:
 
I had a 383 that had a orange wired pickup and I had a hard time setting the timing, the mark was all over the place. It ran o.k. but not great and I checked the gap and it was good and everything else checked good he just did a tune up so everything was new.
I noticed the wire and looked at all the small block dist I had, all where orange, all the big block ones where gray and I had a dist for a 383 so I just swapped them.
Timing mark was rock solid and the guy said it never ran this good ever sense he has had it. I called my buddy that has a starter, alt, carb, dist, repair business and he told me he has both and if you mix them up it will run but not the way it should and you will have problems timing it. Exact problems I had. He told me the GM's are the same way.
I also noticed the reluctor, on the Chrysler dist they go in different places for BB and SB.
 
He also told me you can just cut the plug off and switch the wires around and it will work
 
If you switch the wires, timing will be very advanced & rotor position with respect to cap segments will be out, might cause cross firing in the cap.
Pick up polarity is designed to trigger as the trailing edge of the reluctor tip passes by the pole. Switching wires has it triggering on the leading edge.
 
Not sure how many people are cutting and switching wires on the pickup coils, quite sure it’s all plug and play. Like mentioned earlier, ALL listings on various vendors sites show “one” part# for the pickup coil regardless of the engine. The coils I have are nos USA made better quality replacements, the good stuff and the wire color is irrelevant. And in multiple uses Im not seeing an issue. Anyhow, the post is just to show some details on these distributors as like I stated originally, there’s not much for info aside from stock pictures. If someone is tired of messing with multiple rebuilt Cardone or other remans at now inflated cost than these cheapy-cheaps might be worth a look. If the bushings or housing bores for the shaft, the governor assembly hold up, the shaft doesn’t shear and all it takes is perhaps installing some quality nos pickup coil and some recurving to have a new affordable distributor that looks similar to the originals than what the hell.:thumbsup:
 
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Bewy said:
If you switch the wires, timing will be very advanced & rotor position with respect to cap segments will be out, might cause cross firing in the cap.
Pick up polarity is designed to trigger as the trailing edge of the reluctor tip passes by the pole. Switching wires has it triggering on the leading edge.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I was saying, there is a coil for SB and one for BB because of the direction of rotation. You can't switch them out but if you have a BB coil in a SB dist you can switch the wires and It will work.
 
12many said:
Not sure how many people are cutting and switching wires on the pickup coils, quite sure it’s all plug and play. Like mentioned earlier, ALL listings on various vendors sites show “one” part# for the pickup coil regardless of the engine. The coils I have are nos USA made better quality replacements, the good stuff and the wire color is irrelevant. And in multiple uses Im not seeing an issue. Anyhow, the post is just to show some details on these distributors as like I stated originally, there’s not much for info aside from stock pictures. If someone is tired of messing with multiple rebuilt Cardone or other remans at now inflated cost than these cheapy-cheaps might be worth a look. If the bushings or housing bores for the shaft, the governor assembly hold up, the shaft doesn’t shear and all it takes is perhaps installing some quality nos pickup coil and some recurving to have a new affordable distributor that looks similar to the originals than what the hell.:thumbsup:
Click to expand...

It wasn't always one part # for both, If they are doing that now it's because the old engineers are gone and some Kid weened on a moped got a degree and a job cutting inventory for profit.
 
Perhaps someone could start a thread on what some are talking about here. “Halifax” seems to deal with a lot of oem nos as well as aftermarket nos ignition components and surely could shed more light on the differences, as well as what is being sold these days and how they differ from the original designed pickup coils. Surely there are others who could give some insight as well. But all that is for another thread
 
LOL here I am. The first distrib looks' like a proform, not a bad distributor but the internal parts are different from OEM. Pick ups usually the white/black are slant red black all 8's. Now that is Mopar oem. Aftermarket are all over the pace. MP usually grey black but varies. The reluctor position on the 8's decides the phasing not the pickup plate. Hope it helps.
 
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This will work in both since it is not on a plate.
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8 cyl standard

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MP
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Realy gets confusing
 
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