Removing Centrifugal Mechanism

[81_SpiderVeloce]

I have on my '81 Spider what I believe is a Marelli distributer with the centrifugal mechanism above the contact breaker. I can't figure out how to remove the centrifugal mechanism to get to the points. I removed the one phillips head screw, but that wasn't it. Here's an image:


Thanks.
Jay

[radamm]

The 81 came with electronic ignition. It has a pickup, not points. The two wires on the right are to one of the pickups.

[Alfajay]

radamm offers you good advice. Looking at that single, heavy white cable coming out of your distributor, yea, it does look electronic.

However, to answer your question: you can't remove the advance mechanism without disassembling the distributor. And, you need to remove the distributor from the front cover to do that.

Yea, this is a hokey design - why Marelli put the advance weights to the top, instead of copying the configuration of the earlier Bosch distributors, is beyond me.

[81_SpiderVeloce]

Thanks for the replies. I've never worked on an engine with electronic ignition. Can anything go out of adjustment in the distributor that would make the engine run poorly and that I can adjust myself?

Thanks.

[radamm]

There is an air gap to be concerned with, between the pickups and the reluctor. This is something that once set is usually good for life. If the distributor bushings became worn and allowed excessive lateral play it would affect the gap. This gap can vary quite a bit and not affect how the engine runs.