Waterproofing ignition systems

Went wheelin this weekend and got my dist wet, from fan spray. 8) I have an idea of a splash guard see what you think of this. If I put a section of motorcycle tube on the dist and tie wrap it at the bottom and cut it long enough to fit up and over the valve cover to keep water from splashing in- has anyone tried that before. I'd have to use a longer coil wire. I don't want to drive in over the hood or any thing like that just protect against splash and fan spray. Don't want to buy military stuff for it either. Any swamp buggy ideas from Florida? :hurrican:

 

Not sure what they do in florida (careful, cause there's no telling what Dan might come up with ) Back when I was doing satcom, we use to use a special self-vulcanizing electrical tape to waterproof outside connections. Water in the tx-out is really a bad thing, especially when you got a 200 Watt TWT power amplifier. Anyway, the tape bonds to itself and makes an excellent seal that's not difficult to remove, when it was time to perform maintenance. I want to say its the same as linerless rubber splicing tape, but I think its slightly different. I ask one of my buddies if they still have the 3M number, if you want it.

 

check June 2004 JP it has all kinds of ways to keep the ignition working in the swamps. also keep that issue because it has how to rebuild a Spicer 18 correctly.

 

Yup the new issue of JP said one swamp buggy trick is to cut open an oil filter roughly the same diameter as the dist. body and silicon it over the dist. cap. Then cut holes for the wires and silicon them as well.

 

i like the other idea also. plastic bag + silicon.

 

jeep

Part numbers are good, I will check out the June issue.

 

they didnt give any part numbers (typical JP style). but to come to their defense also i bet they could not find out the part numbers anyway.

 

I've got 3 or 4 of the 4 cylinder ones laying around. They will also fit V-6 Points distributors quite nicely. Just have to cut an extra hole for the other set of wires. Make someone a good deal on them..........
Nickmil.

 

Got some good ideas from the mag- just came today- pony express is overated here in Texas. I'm going to try thr tube trick I'll let you know how it works.

 

I'm always looking for a good deal. Do you have any photos? What do you want for 1 of them?

 

here's what I did on a 78 CJ here in FL. It worked great and I could run in deep water with no problem.

I got the idea from an old an army book and it showed how to do this for water fording.

This may sound crazy but the idea is to prevent condensation in the distributer cap since you are going to seal it up. Carefully drill a small hole in the side of the distributer cap say 1/8" or 5/32" epoxy a small plastic tube into the hole or even better use one of those vacume tube connector barbs. Connect a rubber tube (I used vacume tube) and run it up the fire wall and make a loop to keep water out. You may find a hole in your distributer cap already. Just enlarge it to fit the tube connector.

Silicone the crap out of each spark plug wire as follows: take each wire off the cap one at a time and smear silicone inside each boot but don't get any on the actuall connection. Then put it back on and smear more silicone around where the boot meets the wire and around the cap. the messier the better! Then silicone the cap to the distributer.


WD-40 the heck out of the distributer before wheeling for extra measure.

I don;t have that set up any more though. I just carry WD-40 with me. If the jeep starts missing I just pull the cap and douch it with WD.

 

I'll take some pics tonight hopefully. I've even got a 225 distributor I can put it on so you can see how it fits. Can't promise though as I have to work late tonight, but will do my best. How about $5 plus shipping? Nickmil.

 

I took the cap off and put a light bead of silicone on the bottom lip of the cap. Spray the inside of the cap with a light amount of silicone spray. Take the plug wires off and smear a thin coat of silicone around the plug towers then put the plug wires back on. The hole in the cap was drilled out and threaded with a fitting screwed in. A rubber hose runs from the fitting into the firewall. Dialectric grease on all connections before putting them together prevents condensation from giving you a problem (like the plug wire ends). If your wires aren't sealed at the boots silicone those also. Get a small balloon and slip it over the distributor oiler.
After you get the cap on and all wires on then spray the outside of the cap, coil, and wires with silicone to prevent water from laying on them. Spray any electrical connections under the hood with silicone also.