The internal combustion engine is an incredibly complicated and surprisingly
reliable machine. It has been so for more than 100 years now. This mechanism continues
to evolve as time passes by, adding on improvements and innovations to its already
impressive self. This is to be able to offer more to the car buying public who
is in dire need of great equipment such as this.
The internal combustion engine is the mechanism responsible for making vehicles
run. This is where the exothermic chemical process of combustion takes place.
The processes that happen inside this mechanism are the ones responsible for the
movement of the engine itself. This way, vehicles are able to budge from one place
to another at alternating speeds.
Being a complex mechanism itself, the internal combustion engine is home to a
lot of subsystems. These subsystems cater to varying functions, all of which are
needed by the engine to be able to function entirely. Such subsystems include
the fuel system, the cooling system, the camshafts, the turbochargers and the
gears. The system where they all come together is what is called the ignition
system.
The ignition system has an ultimate goal – to ignite the fuel at exactly the
right time so that the expanding gases can do the maximum amount of work. It is
usually switched on and off through a lock switch operated with a key or a code
patch. If the ignition system fires at the wrong time, power will fall and gas
consumption and emissions can increase. Because of this task, the ignition system
is considered an important part of the overall engine system.
The ignition system, to be able to function, utilizes components responsible
for making the spark. They include the spark plug, the coil and the distributor.
Among these three, it is the distributor which proves very useful as it handles
several jobs. Aside from the fact that it distributes the high voltage from the
coil to the correct cylinder, it also does the job of breaking the current to
the coil.
The distributor consists of a rotating arm inside the distributor cap as well
as a cam in the distributor shaft. It also houses the centrifugal advance unit
and the vacuum advance unit. The distributor also employs breaker points that
control the timing of the spark. Spark timing in critical to engine performance,
and it is the role of the distributor to ensure that all is well and in synch
as far as processes in the ignition system is concerned. The existence of the
distributor is the reason why vehicles are able to function smoothly and quietly
under any circumstance possible. Together with the internal combustion engine
and all its subsystems, this device is the reason why the civilized world is able
to enjoy the value of riding vehicles more than ever before. | 
