Broken Distributor Cap - Gam Pilipin

The car cannot start. Suddenly on a heavy rainy days, after good meail of KFC, the car just did not fire up. Time check, it was 12 midnight. Phew.. Fortunate that my friend was driving as well as he drive me home (thx).

Listened carefully to the fuel pump, it was working. Check air bellow, every connections, plugs connections, all seems ok. I was tired, decided to just went back home. The very next morning, have my friend to fetch me to the car, one start and it starts! However it cannot sustain on low rpm, only 2000rpm and above. As the symptom happens during rainy day, I suspected that maybe some rain water or vapors might have seep in to the distributor.

I then decided to disassemble the distributor cap. Oh was too surprised to see it is not only cracked, but totally broken! I disassemble the black cover as well to again be surprised there was glue residue around that cracked area, showing that it have been glued before!

Visited the local spare part shop to no avail, they do not have any stock for this Volvo. Then decided to call my regular parts dealer in KL and they could only managed to arrive tomorrow or on Friday. Its too late since I really need to use the car. So, I proceed to glue it back!

see the grey colored glue..

gam pilipin

thanks friend...sheidi saiful~~

This is the interesting thing to do. People in Labuan know this glue call as "Gam Pilipin" (Philiphine's Glue). I have no idea of what it is, and why it is called as that?! My friend even used it to patch his cracked radiator and it remains usable for years! Bought the glue, and apply it. Actually the glue is more of epoxy type glue, have to let it dry overnight.

Today, I re-installed the distributor cap unit. One start only! Phew... Done! I'll replace both rotor and cap once they arrived later this weekend. Good Day!