Hello all,

I’m having a problem putting my distributor back into the car. I took it out to change out the tach drive gear to find out that I need to replace the main shaft too. well I am going to put the dist. back in until I can get a new shaft. when I took it out I marked the position of the rotor, then the position of the body to the manifold. then I marked the position of the rotor after the whole this was out. when I tried to put it back in it won't go down all the way. there is about 1/4 inch or less but I just won’t go any further. it just drops right in then stops. any help would be great. thanks again.

-tom-

 

Did you align the dimple in the gear with the tip of the rotor when you reassembled it?

 

Sounds like the oil pump is stopping it. Try turning the pump shaft a few deg. with a long screwdriver and put it in again.

 

Your talking about the thing the shaft fits into. looks like a really big flat head screw. im pretty sure i know what your talking about and i will give it a try.

 

Hello,
I recently did the same thing. The main shaft in the distributor was the source of the problem.

When you put the distributor back in, it will rotate as the gears mesh. At the bottom of the distributor shaft there is a slot where the oil pump shaft fits into. The distributor shaft is angled, or chamfered at the end to help with the alignment and meshing of the two shafts. If you drop your distributor in, but are off by one cog or gear, then as it rotates into position it may not align correctly with the oil pump shaft. This maybe where your problem is.

There are several ways to get around this. The method I used was to use a long flat head screwdriver inserted in the distributor hole, and rotate the oil pump shaft by a small amount. Then I tried to drop the distributor back in using the same gear positions. I needed to do this about three times before it aligned properly.

Now if you drop the distributor into position, and it meshes up with the oil pump, but you find that the reference to the original location is off, the alternative method is to "walk" the distributor around until you reach the original reference position.

That means pulling the distributor out, and rotate it by one gear tooth, then putting it back in. The angle at the end of the distributor shaft will allow you to align the pump shaft for that position. Then you pull the distributor out, and rotate it by one more gear/cog and put it back into position. This allows the distributor to slowly rotate, or "walk" around to the correct location.

Now you may see why the long flat head screwdriver seems like an easier idea.

And last...and not my favorite, is the bump method. That is you drop the distributor in, and bump the starter so that the oil pump shaft will spin, align with the distributor, and then drop down the rest of the way. I dont like that way because I think I will lose my reference to where the rotor to spark plug lead should have been. You then need to find TDC and reference the distributor.

kdf

 

Sounds like this is the way to go. i will try it tommorow. thanks again guys you are life savers.

-tom-