Ford Distributor

The engine of your Ford needs three basic things for the combustion process to begin. The first is the fuel, which is delivered to the engine by the fuel delivery system. For proper combustion to occur, air must also be delivered into the engine, a function provided for by the intake manifold and other air intake components. The last element needed for the engine to start with the engine combustion process is an electric spark. And where would this electric spark come from? The ignition system.

The ignition system is the system responsible for igniting the fuel charge inside the engine cylinders so that the combustion process would begin. Quite an easy function, right? Not really, for the ignition system would have to handle a very large amount of voltage just to create a spark. Further, the ignition system must ensure that the spark plugs are ignited at the proper time so that the engine would work smoothly.

At the heart of the ignition system of older and some late-model Ford vehicles is the Ford distributor. The distributor is that ignition system component responsible for routing high voltage pulses from the ignition coil to the spark plugs of the various cylinders in the vehicle’s engine. Not only that, the distributor is also the main component responsible for controlling the timing of this distribution so that the spark plugs would be ignited in the proper firing order. This timing order is very important so that a lot of improvements have been made in distributors through the years. Many new vehicles have even removed the mechanical distributor completely and have replaced it with an electronic distribution system.

A distributor is basically made up of a rotor which rotates inside the distributor cap. This rotor is connected to the ignition coil by a large cable. The distributor cap, on the other hand, holds the contacts that connect to the cylinder spark plugs through spark plugs wire. Both the rotor and distributor cap are wear items, meaning these components are not designed to last a lifetime. That’s why it is important to give your Ford distributor (if your Ford has one) a regular check so that you can anticipate when it would need to be replaced with a new one.