Still hard to do!!!!!!!!!! Would love to see how the factory did it in mass production. Wonder why the floor manager didn't demand that the engineer who designed the system be brought down to the factory floor and forced to drop in a few dizzys!!!
Use a hardened oil pump drive shaft , only installed from the bottom . It can not be pulled out when removing the distributor . One end of the shaft is a bit more ground pointed , the pointed end is to go up towards the distributor . There is a lot of stress on a stock shaft turning a non stock pump . Port match the oil filter adapter also to help aid oiling . I have built and beat the eyes out of a few of these as a kid . My Dad always told they would have lasted 300K miles driven like an adult .
The Ford distributor is easy to put in! Just determine what tooth you need on the cam a distributor gear, then bump the starter, while putting gentle pressure on the on the housing , it will fall right in place! I have done it this way for over sixty years. Bones
I think the guys having trouble with droping in a distributor are really talking about the oil pump drive shaft. If someone has had the engine apart and left the retaining clip off the pump drive hex shaft, it may come up with the distributor. It is then a job to get it to index back into the pump. So someone who had things apart caused the problem, not Ford.
A good trick for this is to get the engine set up at TDC firing on cylinder #1 and drop the distributor into the engine where you want the rotor to point. If you're lucky it drops in, if not... slowly raise the distributor while applying pressure in the direction the rotor is moving as you raise the body to the point that the distributor gear just clears the cam gear and drops into the next tooth gap. If the distributor drops into place then keep repeating this until the rotor is pointed where you want it. If not, keep doing it until the distributor drops into place and then continue until the rotor is in the proper location. Sounds complicated but it's easy. I can drop a Ford distributor in place in no time doing it this way. It seems that the oil pump shaft is just inside the end if the distributor enough to make this possible. I've done it on small blocks, Windsor, FE, 335 and 385 series engines. Another way (in car) is to just put the distributor in where you expect it will drop into place and if the shaft isn't lined up then grab a screwdriver and bump the starter via the solenoid until it drops. Fun with Fords! That FE is a good base for a strong engine. Check out the 332-428 FE Engine forum and Jay Brown's site for people who know how to build this engine right.
The Jalopy Journal
