Distributor Cleaning

[Tom Alessi]

I've gone through some posts and the manual and still have a question. There was a bunch of dirt and debris inside the housing. Looking at the picture I disassembled as much as I could without removing the shaft. There's still a lot of schmutz(a tech term), under that remainting plate but it doesn't want to come off. I really don't want to remove shaft. Should I just clean, rinse out and re-assemble.
Tom

[Don Moyer]

Tom,

From your picture, it appears that much of the schmutz should respond to a good carburetor cleaner. An air compressor helps to blow out the debris after the carburetor cleaner loosens it up, but absent a compressor, the thin red tube that comes with most aerosol carburetor cleaners does a good job in removing most cruddy build-ups. There is usually no need to remove the shaft.

Don