How do you replace the coil pick up in the distributor? I had to get towed today, and the next thing to replace is this part. I've got the cap and rotor off, but now can't figure what to pull next, or in what order. I have a service manual, but that isn't much help. It's a 383 motor with the mopar electronic conversion setup. Factory electronic distributor. Can this be done without removing the distribuator?

Thanks.

You pry up the reluctor with two screwdrivers. Careful not to lose the small pin that indexes the reluctor to the shaft. Then you can slip the pick-up and its plate off. (after removing the lock screw of course)

What about the shaft that the rotor fits on to? Does that need to come off first, or just take the rotor off, then pry off that plate underneath?

there is a ver small retaining ring in the center of the shaft, at the top under where the rotor slips over. It can be a [Edited by Moparts - Keep it clean] to get off, use very narrow needlenose. Then the top of the shaft comes off, that exposes the weights and springs.

Not a bad idea to have the dist out for this, just mark where the rotor is pointing, and a mark fo the timing (base to engine) and putting it back is easy.

Ok. Thanks. I'll head back out to the garage and look things over again.

Thanks.

OK, I don't see a snap ring. Here's a pic of where I'm at...........

right down the center shaft should be a round piece of felt, take it out and the snap
ring is underneath. theres two slots on the reluctor gear. make a note which one the
lock pin went through. its actually pretty simple to do a MoPar distributor. if this is still
confusing.

True, if all you're doing is the pickup, don;t mess with the clip ring! You only need to take the clip off to get to the weights.

Thanks to all. I figured it out, sort of. I didn't realize a piece was held on by a 3pt clip thing, and kept on prying. One of the 3 gold colored things ended up snapping off of course. By then I figured out I had 2 more screws to remove the whole assembly. Anyways, how important is that little thing I broke?? It actually kinda fell back in place, and I put everything back together. I figured I couldn't mess it up anymore, ya know? I never dreamed it would run again, but after everything went back on, she fired up pretty easy actually. The only thing is now I have a strange noise coming from up front. It sounds like something is caught in the fan; or similar to the old baseball card in the spokes' trick. I can't find any reason for it though. It's just like a rapid "clicking" noise. Anyways, thanks for the help so far.