924Board.org

ATCSDav · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Everett, Washington

Hello all!
I bought a 1979 924NA with 108K original miles and lots of maintenance records back at the beginning of the year. Have been slowly getting everything back to original shape. Been doing all my own wrenching, having lots of fun. HERE is the question: have new spark plug wires, dizzy cap, rotor and NGK spark plugs ready to go - WHAT is the purpose of the metal shield around the distributor cap??!! Have seen lots of pics where it doesn't appear to be there on running cars. Do I need to retain it? And one other question: has anyone ordered a mirror select switch from Performance Products (the one in the center console)? The pic on their website doesn't look right, but that could just be an error. Thanks for any help - this board is AWESOME! Was able to get my timing belt and water pump changed, and my horns working all due to topics on this board.

Steve

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1979 924 NA, 108,000 original miles, Dolomite Gray over Silver. New Pirelli Cinturato P3000 185/70-14s.

gohim · Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 4459 Location: Rialto, CA

As far as I know, all U.S. 924s came with the metal shield around the distributor cap from Porsche.

As time has gone on, I would guess that many have been lost or left off of the distributor because many of the aftermarket replacement distributor caps are not sized correctly, and the metal shield did not fit on the new distributor caps.

The metal shield was designed to reduce the electrical noise/radio emissions being emitted by the distributor. A thick copper braid grounded the shield to the distributor body, leading stray electrcial emissions from the distributor to ground.