man.....this guy is a friggin GENEIUS!!!!!!

 

Not entirely correct. Older cars... very few in the 90s had a true distributor. The old distributors had a set of mechanical points which created the voltage to the rotor, which fired each plug wire as it passed by. The rotor was turned by a gear connected to the camshaft. Later, they had high energy distributors which used an ignition module in the distributor but still had a rotor. The rotor is what typically distiquishes the distributor from the ignition module. Next.... around the early 90's (maybe a little before) they started using all electronic ignitions (by all electronic, I mean no moving parts as in the distributor). Not sure on the dates... but I know my 96 saturn... and the early 90s GMs started using them. These use a coil pack mounted on an ignition module to fire the plugs via plug wires. A lot of the newer model vehicles, the tC included, use the coil on plug setup. There are no plug wires, because the coils are mounted directly on the plugs. A control wire is used to fire the coils.

******EDIT*****************
Didnt read the post entirely well... it was an accurate description... just not completely covering all of the differences. so my reply was a clarification rather than a correction :-)

 

*and now begins the brain battle on who knows more about distributors, carburators, fuel injection, and so on*

 

Not a battle, just trying to get all the info out there. Someone asked a question... I guess those of us who knew the answer should have just made idiotic comments to make the guy feel bad as many others did??? I love how it is ok to bash someone for not knowing something.. but when a few people start discussing the correct answer people start to _____....

 

*Sits down and gets ready for the battle*

-Z

 

And to add to my own description ( I left stuff out), the coil pack design many times used one coil per every 2 plugs... so it actually fired two plugs at a time (helped burn out exhaust gasses during the exhaust stroke). Then with the advent of the coil on plug ignition they switched to one coil per plug. But sorry to clarify... i know some would rather hear something rude and worthless than some real info.... so to the original post.. I hope all of the legitimate replies helped!

 

*wins battle in one well- orchestrated move*

 

i was looking to get the pivot volt stabilizer and i was looking at their direction thing. they say that when u use it with the ground wires, there's like 4 points to ground. one of them is the distributor. that's why i was asking. i'm looking in the engine bay all over the damn place and i'm like-where the f is this thing??

 

good thing you didn't find one i'd say. then you'd really have problems.

 

LOL