Following Lar's advice, I elected to remove and shim out the end play in my distributor (it had .065" before I reshimed to .005"). This is also the first time that I have ever removed a distributor. The car is a 67 with the base engine.

Here is the problem. I have tried for several hours to get the distributor to drop completely back down into the oil pump. The base of the distrubtor is about a 1/4" from full insertion. I can see down to the female slot of the oil pump and have tried multiple times to slightly move the pump in an effort to properly align the distributor with the pump, but to no avail. I have noticed that when I insert my screwdriver into the oil pump shaft there is about 3/8" endplay (side to side) in the oil pump shaft.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated-----Mark

 

make sure you didn't reinstall the gear upside down, you wouldn't be the first guy to do that.

 

When you bump the key put slight downward pressure on the distributor rotor. It should drop down in. You sometimes have to back up the distributor a bit counterclockwise so that when it drops back in it drops in the right tooth of the cam gear. Getting it in the right tooth can be trickier than getting the distributor down in. Don't want to go thru that whole procedure unless you need it. Good Luck-Jim

 

Crank the engine over (coil wire disconencted), the distrib will drop right onto the oil pump shaft.

Doug

 

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Hi Mark,

You are feeling the play in the oil pump extension shaft, NOT the oil pump. The play is no problem, as the shaft is a loose fit on the pump, and goes up through a hole cast into the block. What you are feeling is the clearance between the extension shaft and the hole in the block.

Remember, the distributor turns as it goes down and the distributor gear mates with the camshaft gear. Just advance the oil pump shaft slot so it is slightly ahead of where the distributor tab starts. As the distributor goes down and turns, the tab and the slot should line up and engage. Estimate where you think the tab will be when the distributor is all the way down, and position the slot there. If you cannot get them to line up, install the distributor into the hole in what you think was the position it was in when removed, and have someone crank the engine a little bit at a time while you put slightly downward pressure on the vacuum advance can. The distributor shaft will turn, but not the oil pump shaft, and within a 1/2 turn of the distributor, it will line up and fall into place. If you wind up doing it this way, remember that you might estimate wrong and wind up 1 or 2 teeth off. If, with the timing set properly, the vacuum advance can winds up too far forward or too far backwards, you will have to lift the distributor out again and turn it until it engages the next or last tooth and start over again.

RON

 

Thanks guys, you input was a nice Christmas gift. I was a little apprehensive about bumping the ignition, but when I did the distributor dropped right in.



Mark

 

I just did that myself!

Now If I can only figure out how to route the mufflers around the fanbelts...