How far out should my vacuum advance canister move? I was told by a mechanic that my distributor needed some work, such as a worn distributor shaft, and I'm curious what all I need to do to the distributor to make the car run in tip top shape. I've been told by other Z aficionados that the vaccum advance canister can be a huge cause of problems, because they will seize up after a while.

I attached a length of tube to the advance canister, and I sucked on the end of the tube, and the vacuum advance moved about 1 mm. and no more. How much should it move for it to be good?

Also, what other parts are common to go out in the Z distributor?

about 1/4". either you aren't sucking hard enough, or the vac advance plate may be buggered.

dist shft bushings can go bad.

you might want to look into a rebuilt dist from Nissan. last time I checked it was around $160 from Courtesy Nissan in TX. comes complete w/ cap, points, rotor, vac advance. all you need to do is swap the base from your old one and BAM, just like new.

The vacuum advance canister has a diaphram that can go bad. Get a vacuum pump from auto parts store and hook it up to the vacuum advance canister and apply vacuum, you will see the advance plates move about 1/4 ", then with the vacuum still applied see how long it holds vacuum, if they close back up diaphram needs replaced .