Mike
"The workshop manual says to crank the engine, but that sounds like
a recipe for disaster and completely losing the distributor indexing."
You left out the important part of that sentence;" after the distributor
gear is partially engaged, in order to engage the oil pump intermediate
shaft." You want the gears engaged so the distributor and cam turn
together. I have never used this method as you stated, "can be a recipe
for disaster".
"Does the intermediate shaft come out with a magnetic pickup and get
inserted into the distributor shaft with a bit of grease to hold it and then
go back in?"
If you can pull the intermediate shaft up more than a 1/4", you will need to
pull the oil pan to get the shaft back in the oil pump and put the retaining
clip back in position.
The shaft is a 1/4" hex; use a drive tool or a 1/4" socket to turn
the shaft. If the shaft turns freely, the shaft is not in the oil pump and
you need to pull the oil pan, if there is some resistance to turning, the
oil pump is engaged.
Putting the distributor back in is a little tricky because you have
to get the gears to mesh and you have to engage the oil pump drive shaft.
First make sure the hex drive on the distributor is clean. I don't
recommend using grease here, very light oil only if anything. Grease will
cause an air lock at the distributor end; air has to be able to escape the
hex drive section as the shaft goes into the distributor drive hex.
Put the distributor in and move the rotor back and forth once the
gears have started to engage to see if the distributor will align with the
shaft. The point on the end of the shaft is designed to self align as the
distributor drops into position. If this still does not engage the oil
shaft; remove the distributor and rotate the oil shaft slightly with a drive
tool or 1/4" socket and drop the distributor back in the engine.
Unfortunately this is one of the jobs that can be done in 2 seconds
or it can take what seems forever to get the distributor in correctly. I
have been completely frustrated at times with this and just when I had it
for the day and I'm ready to give up the distributor just drops into place.
Good luck
Ron Fraser
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-tigers@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Mike Michels
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 3:27 AM
To: Tiger Email List
Subject: Distributor installation
Hello listers. I am having one bit of trouble that has me stumped:. I'm
restoring the heater system (which was completely missing from my car and
had to take the distributor out to install a heater hose elbow and I just
can't get it to drop back into place. The distributor is an MSD unit and
there's no apparent interference with anything topside. .
I marked the indexing before I removed it. It's clearly not dropping onto
the oil pump intermediate shaft, which is a pointed hex shaft that inserts
into a hex hole at the bottom of the distributor shaft.
Looking down into the oil pump, the intermediate shaft is movable and
flopping over to one side and appears not to be centering itself when the
distributor is dropped in. I tried to prop it into position, and worked the
crankshaft back and forth with a wrench on the pulley nut, but nothing seems
to work. The workshop manual says to crank the engine, but that sounds like
a recipe for disaster and completely losing the distributor indexing. Does
the intermediate shaft come out with a magnetic pickup and get inserted into
the distributor shaft with a bit of grease to hold it and then go back in?
What to do?
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