I was worse than a drunk blind man this weekend. While my old lady was not the problem, the Mallory I had just installed in my 235 was. I knew I was a couple teeth off, as I didn't adjust the oil pump slot to get the rotor pointed where the old one was. With a near-dead battery, gettin TDC was a pain, so I left it. Got it timed, but after I got a full charge on the battery and finally getting TDC, decided to pull the distributor and set it accordingly. SOB would not fall back in place no matter where I set the pump slot. I spent hours messin with it. It did drop in once, but pointing at 3 instead of 1. WTF? After watchin Force lose to Worsham, gave it one more try. 30 minutes later, slot was filled. A**** other things, I gently filed the long edge of the shaft to match the stock one, but that didn't seem to make much difference. What I'm wondering is, does the rotation of the shaft tend to make the slot move when dropping it in? Is that crucial ****** just a ***** to get unless you're right on target?
i read somewhere that there are two different gears used on 235s throughout the years. maybe it is just the wrong kind? IDK, never had mine out.
The trick is to get it 180 out first and mess with that for a while before you figure it out. Then it'll usually feel sorry for your dumb *** and drop right in. Bout then a buddy will drop in, hand you a beer and say, "Why didn't you just swap the wires?" I did have one engine we spent a whole day trying to get the damned distributer in. The 2 buddies that started out laughing at me couldn't get it either...
Too easy. The other thing that ****ed was, unlike a V-8, you only have a certain amount of room to rotate the distributor before either the vacuum canister or the cap clip hits the pushrod cover. That was one of the reasons I wanted to move it, and also because the vacuum line pointed directly at the breather vent. Worst thing is, the distributor is pretty much right back where it was before all the problems began. I figured in the hole was better than ****ing around trying to find the slot for hours. Almost got some flour to help find the spot!
Rob- just move all of the plug wires around one position one way or the other. . . to get the room you need to set the timing. that said, i have had it take an hour or so before just to get it in there in any old spot.
I was having that exact problem. I started to randomly move the oil pump gear around anywhere just to get the distributor to sit down. With the shaft still moving from meshing with the cam gear, if it wasn't dead-on, it was no go. Right now, it points toward No. 1 cylinder by way of No. 2 (in-between, but more toward 1). If the road draft tube becomes a problem, I'll just modify it.
the gear teeth are twisted, so you have to turn the rotor back a little bit to get it to end up where you want as it drops in and twists, and also turn the oil pump drive slot that same amount, usually about 1/8" at the edge of the slot. I even scored a line on the end of the handle of my long screwdriver so I can poke it down in a chevy V8 and line up the oil dive without looking down in the hole. I generally spend one or two minutes putting in a distributor...but **** does happen, especially with those damn hot rod parts.
put the motor at TDC firing order #1 cylinder drop the distributor in right like it belongs if it doesn't go all the way in bump the starter till it does. the starter will turn the crank duh, which turns the cam, duh again the cam will turn the distributor shaft till it lines up with the oil pump drive and it will drop right in. fire it up, time it, done.
That's all understood fine and clear. Even went so far as to mark the block where the slot was positioned when the distributor was pulled. I'm telling you, the engine was pissed that she was losing her old Delco points! Not even extra lube or foreplay would help...
Don't duh without all the facts. The dead battery prohibited the initial part of your sequence. That, and the fact that the starter ignition is a hair-trigger foot switch, which, when "bumped", spins the flywheel more than expected, so hoping that the distributor shaft will just "drop right in" isn't likely.
My problem in the garage is I'm usually not fast enough marking things. Pull the distributer, set it on the bench to go answer the phone in the house. Come back out to the garage and find niece's husband has stopped by and is holding the distributor and spinning it to watch the rotor go around. Takes 10 minutes after he's gone to find where he stuck the cap. Same **** happens when I have the pistons, rods and rings all lined up on the bench. Leave your bolts for the starter or the oil plug under the edge of the car and someone will kick them to the far end of the garage under the bench or tool box every time. Last time I pulled a starter neices and their kids showed up. I told the kids to go in the house and watch TV. Helped the neice get the plate brackets off her car so she could put on the new stickers. After everyone was gone, I finally found the long starter bolt under the kitchen table and my socket and wrench was on the living room floor. 2 year old mechanics... Funny how you can never find these people when you need to load a rear end in the pickup or move a body around.
That reminds me of the "other" issue--my 15-month-old had the keys to the truck. He threw them in grandma's purse, unbeknowst to me or grandma. Come 10pm when the hole was finally filled and it was time to fire it up, no keys. Luckily, grandma doesn't live too far away.
Listen mister smarty pants, your solutions may solve some issues I was dealing with, but not all of them. Regardless of how the mechanical workings of the engine are "moved", if the distributor shaft spade and the slot in the oil pump gear dimensions are different by a matter of thousandths, getting the two to make love aren't is simple as it seems...at least in my case. Maybe it was just an excuse to drink more beer, have someone watch the kid longer, etc.
i just had a similar problem with a mallory HEI ignition in a 350 chevy , it just did not want to engager the oil pump driveshaft....i compared the mallory distributor gear to a stock chevy one a found that there was a slight difference , had to take it off and remachine it on my lathe , basically the chamfer on the bottom was smaller and didn't allow the shaft to slide in
SO you DO ,really have a car -Huh? A shade tree mechanic, would of known the answer- when you figure which "knotch" you believe is the correct one-rotate the distributor BACK one knotch and drop it in.....it will engage the oil pump shaftand seat all the way in-[but only as engine turns slightly] -then it will end up in the position you desire.
It could have been worse. The drive gear is on the distributor, right? Not on an old flat head Nash/Rambler six! The drive gear is on the oil pump and the end of the distributor shaft is shaped like a big screwdriver blade! The pump shaft end has a slot. The first time I rebuilt one (my second engine rebuild) I didn't pay any attention to it. Getting it timed was a real head scratcher! To make matters worse, the slot in the gear (and end of distro) is OFF SET slightly to one side -- it will only go in ONE WAY!! I didn't have an official AMC service manual at the time. Years later, when I did get one, I discovered that it says rotate the engine to TDC then install pump with slot in the correct position! Of course it didn't take long to figure out the answer once we discovered it would only drop in one way -- move the plug wires. That was the ONLY answer -- unless we wanted to drop the pan and move the pump shaft. The distro angles out the side of the block at about a 40 degree angle near the right spring tower, so there's no way to get in there and adjust points. So the engineers actually did a good thing! You pull the distro to change and adjust the points. It only goes back in one way, so it's hard to mess it up so bad it won't crank. IIRC the adjusting collar has one bolt holding it on the block that isn't slotted. The collar has a clamp on it and the whole collar comes off with the distro. There's just enough room to pull it out.
No, a truck... Read what I wrote. You missed the entire point, and pretty much just explained the basic rule of thumb for installing a distributor...
Did -dumb***er...read what the problems were. Everyone's givin tips on getting a distributor to "set". I know how to set a distributor. Surprised you didn't add tips on how to turn the engine over. Ah, who cares. Job's done and past.
The Jalopy Journal
