Hi Guys,

I've just spent the last couple of hours trying to install a new mallory distributor.

The new oil pump drive piece is fairly squarely cut compared with the old one which is champhered.

I have a tool that I use to line up the oil pump drive and have adjusted it as many times as I have tried to fit the dizzy.

I have tried to fit it at least 30 times (truly) and I was only sucessfull in meshing it once (fully so that the clamp can be fitted) and that was at the wrong position so I had to pull it again and try some more.

I have built a few SBC's and can't remember ever having this much trouble.

So please, any advise as I'm yet again considering torching the piece of c%#$!

Mark

 

Drop the distributor down in the gear tooth you want then bump the starter motor. It should drop down the rest of the way over the oil pump shaft.

 

I once bought a oil pump priming tool and could not get it to mesh either. Spent some time trying to figure it out. Finally compared the bladed end of the tool to the dist. and found out the darn thing was a few thousandths too wide. Great quality for a $40 dollar tool. A few seconds with a file fixed it right up.

 

Here's a one in a million. If the pump driveshaft is new make sure it isn't a chevyII oil pump drive shaft. There a touch longer. Is the one you have fully seates in the pump? Good luck I feel your pain. Glen

 

I would only advocate this if you're a person who can maintain their temper. I ran into a similar issue when I was using my pre-oiler--which doesn't even mesh with the cam gear! The first time I popped it in, it went right in, no problem. The next time I tried to use it, it would not drop down that critical last 1/2"... Do everything humanly possible to make sure that the slot in the oil pump and the bar in the bottom of the distributor are pointing the same direction--don't forget that the distributor is going to turn almost 90 degrees (clockwise, I believe) when you slide it down since it will engage the cam gear. When you think that you have everything lined up correctly, just give the gentlest of taps with a mallet to the distributor housing--that's all it took for mine to slide home when everything was aligned.

A variation on this would be, just for the sake of proving to yourself that you're not going crazy, would be to try to drop the distributor in. If it doesn't go right in, pull it up a few inches--just enough to unengage the cam gear--and rotate the center shaft a few degrees--just enough so that the next spline on the cam gear will engage when you drop it down this time. Don't worry which way the darned rotor is pointing for this exercise--we're just trying to prove that it can be done! I don't know how many splines there are on the gear--not many--but eventually you should in fact be able to seat the darned thing! Don't lose sight of the fact that it's super-easy to wire the distributor for any alignment that works, as long as your plug cables are long enough. It doesn't matter to the rotor which of the 8 towers it is pointing at as long as the one that it points to at TDC of the compression stroke of cylinder #1 has the #1 plug wire in it and you follow the firing order the rest of the way around!

Good luck.

 

You don't need temper or patience or anythig else. Just drop the distributor on the tooth you want and bump the starter. It will drop. You dont need a mallet or sledgehammer. As far as rewiring the cap to make up for the distributor being a notch off, that is recipe for disaster. If you wire the cap off a notch you will probably wind up with the distributor hitting either the intake manifold or the ignition shielding trying to set the timing. It WILL ONLY GO ONE WAY. Same for the distributor gear on the distributor. By the book or you will have problems.

 

Thanks Guys,

I was all ready to take your advise when I went into the garage today and thought I'd give the dizzy one more jiggle before trying Mikes method and of course she dropped right in. Why is it that you can spend hours trying to get a job done and getting more and more frustrated then give up in disgust and then you try it again some time later and it just falls into place????

It started right up but I did have a couple of the wires incorrectly fitted but a few minutes later she was purring like a kitten.

I beleive that the main problem was that the oil pump drive in the new dizzy was slightly thicker than the previous one and together with the fact that it was not champhered it had to be in just the right spot before it would drop in.

I fluked it in the end but I will use MikeM's method next time.

So thanks again for all the responses and I have yet again learned something new and I am again spared from torching the offending vehicle.

Thanks to all, Mark.