Falcopilot

It IS 5/16, thanks.

I am about to throw in the towel.........I absolutely CANNOT get this thing to seat all the way down.......the o-ring is almost level with the distributor hole and won't budge anymore......been at this for ANOTHER two hours this morning.......I am ready to SCREAM...

The tips about getting to TDC were GREAT, thanks guys, at least THAT part has worked like a charm......

kalli

anyone in GA who canb quickly drive over? :-)
can you get it in fully in any other rotor position? if yes, do that, turn the distributor so it points exactly to any of the posts, put #1 spark plug there and continue anticlockwise in firing order. usually i seat it and turn the rotor clockwise by hand to give it a bit of help. if it refuses to go in i try one tooth further and so on (turning rotor, not the housing). no joy then trotate the oilpump shaft a bit.

JMD

Roll the starter over while maintaining a little down force on the distributor, (if you have the right pump shaft) the distributor will usually always fall right in.

If the distributor is kept from popping up (which never actually happens!) the distributor will not come out of time.

How many times have I done this? With little doubt, closer to 100 times than 10.


SOME if the hex drive shafts have a bit more chamfer around the top than others, this allows the shaft to "self align" a bit, so shafts have a greater chamfer at one end than the other with the idea being that the chamfered end is for the distributor and the square end is for the oil pump, the shafts are otherwise identical end to end. I have seen one shaft with a chamfer on only one side.

A chamfer is a beveled edge connecting two surfaces. If the surfaces are at right angles, the chamfer will typically be symmetrical at 45 degrees. A fillet is the rounding off of an interior corner. A rounding of an exterior corner is called a "round"[1] or a "radius".

Installing the shaft upside down will make dropping the distributor a little more difficult, a 351 distributor will make dropping the distributor into a 289/302 impossible...

Falcopilot

So far nothing has worked......little pressure.......heavy pressure.......using remote starter to bump engine over........hand turned the engine........used a 5/16th socket to turn the oil pump shaft minutely......OVER AND OVER......STILL have a 1/4 of an inch left for the distributor to be fully seated.......it DOES "drop" when it lines up, but not all the way......I checked and the new shaft is the same length as the old one. I went ahead and hooked up all the wires just to see if everything I've installed works........the engine will not start, but I AM getting spark so it just needs some fine tuning......getting the thing seated will hopefully be the last major hurdle.........but I'm not holding my breath!

Thanks for the call-out for help Kalli. I really appreciate it!

66JameStang

Is your distributor body tha same as your old one?

Will your oil pump shaft fit in the recess in the distributor gear?

tcrote5516

Have you tried seating the distributor without the oil pump driveshaft just to ensure the body of the distributor fits

photocliff

I had the same problem when installing mine a few years ago. I ended up turning the crank with a socket wrench while pusing the dist down. Be sure to have it down to the gasket level and as far down it will go before forcing it. I dont remember which direction I turned it but it was like a hot knife on butter when it happened. It almost pulled the dist down by its self as I turned the crank.

kalli

the distributor is the one he had, so it being the wrong one (wrong shaft) is not an option.
ah man i feel sorry for you. if you don't have it engaged and get the negine to run the oilpump will not turn, so don't chance that.

is the oil pump shaft centered, maybe it just fell to the side. check the bottom of the distributor shaft maybe something stuck in there or something ?! don't really know what else to say

tcrote5516

Kalli is right, I allways pull out the pump shaft with a extendable magnet and slide it into the distributor body. Then drop the whole thing in as one piece (being carefull the shaft doesn't fall back out during the drop).

The shaft never sits dead center (where it needs to be) once the distributor body comes out.

Falcopilot

Hmmmmm.........pull out the pump shaft...........may try that tomorrow.......I gave it a rest today.