Optispark ?
 

95 Camaro [I know, I know]

What I'm wanting to know is have any of you LTI guys had problems with the reman DIstributors on the market for these cars?

I've got one I'm involved in that's going on #5 in 10k miles. This isn't moisture related is poor quality remanning. You can turn the rotor on this one 1/4 turn while holding the shaft that locates on the Camshaft.

All of these units have been CARDONE remans which are normally a decent unitin my experience.

Any imput is appreciated.

Mike

It's been awhile since I visited this issue but I know there are many complaints about aftermarket opti's. Best bet is a genuine GM unit. There's some contact info at Camaroz28.com on a Jason Cromer at a dealership in FL I believe, anyway he beats everyones price on GM units. It's routine. There is another contact, 'Dal' I believe but I got mine from Jason. Just go there and do a search.
Stock opti's are the best or at least get the least amount of complaints. The only catch is the rotors do not hold together well above the stock rpm limit of about 5500. I wasted 2 this way. They have tiny screws that hold the rotor which back out, also the plastic welds that hold the metal tab on the rotor give up as well. You can disassemble it and locktite the screws and add a pop rivets to the rotor for a more reliable set up.
The last thing I did, knock on wood, was buy a new opti and then buy the MSD cap and rotor kit. It's the best set up all around, still did the locktite though. It also adds an extra screw to hold the cap tight as they die with moisture. If you have a non-vented opti this would be a good time to convert, the vented opti really improve the moisture problem. And a big 'good luck' as working on the opti just bites. And remember, you can just pull the balancer and not the hub, you just have to clock it right to clear. And there is no getting out of pulling the water pump. Good distributor, bad location.

Thanks for the info. I get trade price @ GM as a business but will check into it anyway.

I did find there are 2 different vented housings floating around. The one I removed from my Roadmaster was a plain ,no marking unit. The one I put back on it was a reman
ed GM housing with what looked like a GM optical sensor. This tells me the one on my car was Chinese, it wouldn't turn over 3k rpm without losing it's signal per the scanner.

The strange part of this whole deal is neither of these cars have been beat on, no high rpm's other than a passing gear for short stints in the road. It's not like they're race cars. The only reason mine was turning 3k was my trying to set a code.

If the reman fails on mine A GM will go back on it. I'm not screwing around but need the car now.

Thanks for the info.

Mike

FWIW,the Unit on the Camaro had the shafts separate on it this time. You can literally hold the Base that indexes into the cam gear and turn the rotor wiht your fingers.

MIke

hey mike i found this post did you have any luck with what was discussed?

I recommend a GM unit after multiple failures with the aftermarket units.

On the above Camaro I built one.

My 94 z28 Ate the opti on 3 different occasions. Was a reman from zone. Finally I sprung for the MSD and Its still on the road 3yrs later turning 7800 rpms without issue. Also ate the opti driveshaft seal on it once and filled the cap with oil. All I did after realizing what happened was Replace the seal and clean the cap and distributor with electric parts cleaner. Still performs like new.

May want to consider converting to LS-1 spark system.