I solved my missing (and eventually barely running) problem on my 79 280SE and it wasn't the pickup. I was taking stuff off to get to the pickup and figure out what I was dealing with, when I happened to look inside the distributor cap. I had replaced it and the rotor when I replaced the plug wires and coil not too long ago and so I didn't really include it in my troubleshooting. At first, I noticed heavy carbon scoring on the terminals, and I automatically started to clean that up...then I suddenly thought "This is really weird scoring for an almost new cap"....then I noticed a groove cut about 45 degrees around one side of the cap, just below the terminals. I stared at it a little, and then the next thing I saw was that the carbon center terminal was eaten away so that it was actually below the level of the cap, and the copper contact plate on the rotor was quite dirty. I guess at some point I either put the cap on crooked or one of the catches came loose, and caused the rotor to hit the side of the cap, and for the center contact to lose contact and the spark jumping the gap ate it away. I had the cap on and off a couple of times but never looked at it since it was new.

Put a new cap and rotor on it and so far it runs fine. Just goes to show you, always check the simple stuff first, even if you just fixed it.

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kalpol
79 280SE
82 Fiat Spider 2000
81 Fiat Brava
04 BMW R1150RT
96 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Is your original thread still around?

It would be better for you to post this on that thread so that people can see the problem and solution when using the search function.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".