What is this thing?

[vampire222]

This came from under my ignition distributor rotor. The strap and the cylinder thing were loose, is the strap supposed to be on the bottom of the cylinder object?

And what the hell is the cylinder thing it looks messed up!

[JMF894]

At the risk of sounding stupid isn't it some kind of centre balancing weight..................






Jimbo

[wooly350i]

Stand clear,it might explode.
Its obviously an earth strap but dunno what the bomby looking thing is,aint seen one on mine.

[pjtvr390se]

It looks like a capacitor of some sort but don't understand from your description of where it came from, what engine and what distributor are the bits from? A picture would help to.

[vampire222]

it's from a 86' 350 engine

there's two earth leads going to the top of the thing, from the distributor.

I'll make pics tomorrows

[york33]

Looks like a terminal from a car battery, perhaps been yanked out of an old battery and used as a connecting block.......maybe!

[jeff m2]

As it is a guessing game and having never owned a 350 or any other Rover lump.

I'm going for a Vacuum Damper.

[vampire222]

This is where it's located with the top then on the strap to earth at the bottom.

The two cables going on top is 1 of 2 from the distributor rotor, the other from the king coil...

Is it the earths or some more advanced stuff, i tried just putting those two cables straight onto the earth but that won't result in any sparkage.

[The Hatter]

Weird and not standard I think, my '86 350 doesn't have one.

Could be a ballast resistor, do you have a 6V or a 12V coil on the car? Maybe the car's been modified for better starting?