Totally Off Topic but hope you guys can help

[snibook7537]

Ok so sorry about the fact that this isnt about a 73-87 but my step father and I are really confused. He has a 1997 astro van with all wheel drive the 4.3L SFI V6 but has had distributor cap problems a lot. I guess it is the first year for that type of distributor and they are know to go fast.  The caps burn out. He has talked to a lot of people about it and they all say it is just that way you cannot do anything about them.  Out neighbor came over with the same van and asked him what to do about the problem and he said his van is down too.  The problem is water getting into the cap and it is a real pain in the ass to start when it gets wet outside.  He has the right plugs (they are the factor ones platinum), copper cap and has to replace it say every 6-8months and a really nice set of plug wires but is holding off tuning it up until he can figure a way to get the cap to last. He always buys nice stuff for it and is totally perplexed as to what to do. The guy we went to get my truck adn my grandfathers truck inspected says that the UPS guys put dieletric grease into the cap and they last forever but he has  never done that and only hurd it from a guy that never has actually done it himself so he's skeptical. 

So anyone know of any ways of prolonging the life of a cap like this or of putting the grease into the cap??

He wanted me to look up stuff online cause he is not too good with a computer but i have found a lot of nothing so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry about not being about the 73-87 but I figured it was the best place to go since a lot of you guys seem to know a lot of stuff about similar problems with 73-87 so maby the help could be brought to this truck

Thanks Vince

[Lt.Del]

short term fix for a wet distributor cap is spraying WD-40 on the inside of the cap.  WD-40 does not conduct electricity like water.  Water will cause the spark to go everywhere inside the cap, WD-40 will focus the electrical current to wherever the metal rotor points to on the cap, as it should.

My old '68 mustang, while i was in college, stalled on a highway near campus.  It was pouring rain. I finally had a hunch the cap was probably wet.  I had read the story of WD-40 in a hot rod mag or something and had some in my trunk.  I popped the cap off and sprayed all inside of it and reattached the cap.  She started right up. Drove it to the dorms without any further problems.

You must address why moisture is getting near the cap.  I know nothing of Astro vans and their design.  Is there a bad hood gasket?  Cowl gasket?  Something is letting water reach the distributor.

my $.02

[VileZambonie]

Use a good quality cap and spray it down with moisture displacing sealer. Cover it if water is getting in it with a boot.

[Irish_Alley]

i would put some dielectric grease on the mounting serface of the distributor enough to cause it to seal good. i too have never heard of the astro cap problem

[Stewart G Griffin]

i'll try to look it up when, and if i get time, because it's good to know, but i heard that this is a rather common problem with astros but it goes a little deeper than just water on the distributor;  The distributor shaft iself somehow grounds the whole distributor---thru i'm assuming when it contacts the cam gear and the cam gear touches the engine itself etc, etc. And when it looses ground (i forgot what causes this), of course, no spark and the engine doesn't run.
(yet somehow the v-8 versions which i would think are identical don't have this problem, but in theory they could?).

It's a simple fix to an aggravating problem and i did hear it on the radio, but they have podcast archives so they can be looked up.

Are you sure it's just the distributor cap?

i want to find this info out for my self because i think it's useful and this post will be a reminder for that;   i'll eventually get to it, but i can't guarantee any timeframe.

BTW the podcast/show is CarTalk on NPR.  And they did discuss this phenomenon with astros.

[Irish_Alley]

i don't think grounding out the distributor would effect spark unless it was something on the rotor since the rotor is insulated and the power goes from there to the wires

[VileZambonie]

The distributor body is grounded when it's installed in the engine. It is not common for astro's and safari's to burn up caps unless they are cheap ones and that goes for any application.