1977 140 Mercruiser I/O has Silver Metal granuals in Distributor, Also rough running

[TahitiThomer411]

Hi, I am new to the Forum (a month or so) and have found quite a few helpful topics but none for my current issue. The motor will run for awhile
and then die or start running rough. I have changed the coil, Distributor cap, rotor, points, condenser, wires and spark plugs. Seemed to fix the issue and ran great for a day. I took off Dist. cap and there were silver metal filings inside and the contact / wear bar on the points where they contact the lobes on Dist. shaft was worn unevenly. Parts store replaced the poinst said they were faulty. I cleaned out the metal filings, installed new points and gapped @ .022 per manual and it ran so so for about 30 min. I took of Dist cap again and there was a fresh pile of silver metal granuals inside. I also noticed that the Distributor shaft has some up down end play as well (not sure if this is normal or not). Any Ideas what is wrong? It is an after market Sierra Distributor changed by previous owner a couple years ago. Could the entire distributor be bad?

 

[Rick Stephens]

Could be the mechanical advance is tearing itself up. Or the bearings in the distributor are gone and the shaft is woggling around. I'd take the entire distributor apart, at least until you inspect the mechanical advance under the point plate.

 

[TahitiThomer411]

Thanks Ensign, I will check into that.