It sounds like you may have gotten the distributor drive gear off by one tooth
where it meshes with
the camshaft.
Changing this is simple in theory but can be a bit of a pain in actual
practice. First, set the
engine at TDC on #1. Then remove the distributor base (the piece that has the
tach cable attached to
it. This will give you access to the distributor drive gear.
Now in theory, what you want to do is simply grab the top of the gear with some
needle-nose pliers,
pull it out, rotate it by one notch and put it back in. This is actually where
it gets hard.
First, the gear is a spiral gear, so it will rotate as you pull it out and
reinsert it. Second, the
bottom end of the gear has to mesh with the oil pump drive, so you will have to
reach down in there
with a flat-blade screwdriver and rotate the oil pump drive slightly so that
the drive gear will
mesh with it correctly when you reinsert it. This is pretty much a "take a
guess" process. When you
reinstall the distributor mount, you will have to rotate the distributor shaft
to get it to mesh
with the drive gear.
It is CRITICAL that the drive gear drop ALL THE WAY DOWN when you reinstall it.
If it looks like it
is all the way down in, but there is a little gap under the distributor mount
when you try to
reinstall it, you missed. DO NOT force the distributor mount. What has most
likely happened is that
the gear didn't match up correctly with the oil pump drive. Remove the drive
gear, wiggle the oil
pump drive and try it again.
On rare occasions, I've managed to hit it on the first try, but one time it
took me an hour to
finally get it back in and on the right tooth. Be patient.
Michael wrote:
> I think may have inadvertantly misaligned my
> distributor when I was rebuilding the engine. At TDC
> the lobe on the distributor is not yet opening the
> points. Is it possible it is out of adjustment? If
> so how do I correct this? The two shafts are aigned
> properly according to the gear marks.
>
> Michael
> 67 1600
> Va Bch VA
--
Gordon Glasgow
http://www.gordon-glasgow.org
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