Well. thanx to littlebeaver, I went ahead and repaired mine.
Since I had the motor out, waiting for gaskets, and was having some serious detonation noise before, I thought it would be kinda stupid not to check my advance. The mechanical advance was free to move. But the vacuum advance would pull, then release immediately because it wouldn't hold vacuum. So...apart it comes - since the leg work is all laid out in front of me right here by littlebeaver. So, here's the way I did it.
After wiping the sludge off and cleaning up a bit, I used a dremmel to cut slots all the way around, then pry up the tangs with a screw driver. I have actually destroyed rubber diaphrams by cleaning such a part with carb cleaner, so this time I used water and dish soap to clean everything up.
Here are the pieces disassembled. The only thing I've cleaned so far in this picture is the diaphram. I cleaned the aluminum ignition housing before I ever took anything apart.
With the diaphram clean and dry, the two holes were obvious.
A dab of silicon in the inside and outside of the holes, then set out in the sun to dry while I eat some lunch and look at my pictures so far.
If I align my cut marks, then the vacuum nipple will be properly oriented going back together.
Here she is, assembled and holding vacuum. I laid a thin film of silicon around the edge of the diaphragm on the vacuum side just in case it needed help to reseal. I used small vice grips to bend the tangs back over, then went back around with the vice grips and gave them all a good crimp. I finished off by putting more silicone around all my cuts, although I doubt it's really needed.
Would have been nice to use a new diaphram, but I don't have one. I'll just have to see how far this one goes.
Hope the pictures helped.
