Distributor Oiling
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 15
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Distributor Oiling
Basic question, how do the bushings/bearings/tach-drive fitting get lubricated? Does pressurized oil get pushed up the distibutor housing some way? Here is why I'm asking, I have a '69 Camaro with a crossram and the only distrubutor that I could get to fit around the runners of the intake is the one I just happened to have installed in a '63 'vette I was working on that had the tach drive. So I purchased another one, removed the tach drive gear and threaded housing. I installed the distributor into the camaro and it worked great. I put a small chrome plug that I had laying on the bench in the tach drive hole (by no means is it oil tight). Car runs great, until I really get into the throttle and it starts spewing oil and I believe it is coming from the tach drive hole. Could this be?
Race Director
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 17,901
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From: Inverness FL
St. Jude Donor '07
to the best of my knowledge, only the FI distributor is lubricated by being pressure fed from the engine oil gallery. some early non-FI distributors have an oil filler tube along the side; the rest would only be splash oiled by the oil in the lifter gallery.
i suggest putting the tach drive back into the distributor; with no load from a tach cable, it should run forever...
Bill
i suggest putting the tach drive back into the distributor; with no load from a tach cable, it should run forever...
Bill
Last edited by wmf62; Oct 24, 2008 at 08:05 PM.
Race Director
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 17,901
Likes: 751
From: Inverness FL
St. Jude Donor '07
try getting an old speedometer cable and see if the threaded end 'nut' fits, then you cut the cable and slip the nut off. you can cut a round piece of metal (or even use a penny) and put it on the inside of the nut to block the hole that the cable went through and then screw it on.
this will keep dirt and grime out...
Bill
this will keep dirt and grime out...
Bill
