Dead in the water

[fred6550]

I have a beautiful red Mx-3 GS with the 1.8 V-6 in my driveway, a gift from my son. The problem is it doesn't start. My son said that the initial problem was the engine cutting off at around 3000 RPM. It progressed to stopping completely and it was towed to my driveway. My son had a mechanic look at it and he said it needed a new distributor. <BR> Is there anything else that might cause the same problem? Also how do I go about removing and replacing the distributor? <BR> Any help would be useful, it's to nice of a car to just sit there.<P>Thanks

[pelado]

Remove two bolts and the distributor is free.<P>I would line it up so the crank pulley is on the timing mark with the rotor pointed at the #1 spark plug and #1 cylinder at TDC. I used a long wooden dowel inserted in the #1 cylinder as a TDC indicator, spark plug removed of course. Replace distributor.

[jasonbierschwale]

GSFRED, <BR> this is a common problem with the MX-3... well documented on this site. Go to NAPA auto parts and ask for a Ford Probe V6 distributor... same year. Cost is $154+tax and core. It's very, very easy to do a distributor... I did mine on my lunch hour and drove the car back to work. If you need some more info, search the site for posts with 'distributor'... you'll find more information that you ever wanted to know! Good luck!