1986 2.9L distributor install help

[leftcoast]

Hoping I can get some help, 1986 2.9L I cannot get the distributor to drop in. The gear is meshed a bit, if I turn the motor I can see the rotor move. I just cannot get it to fully drop in. I have pushed down while wiggling rotor, I put a wrench on water pump and moved motor each direction while pushing down. I have lifted distributor, moved rotor just a bit and lowered distributor again. I am at top dead center on compression stroke rotor pointing 11:00. Anything I'm missing here? Neither old one or new distributor with drop in.

 

[Shran]

You have to get it meshed with both the cam gear and the oil pump drive rod. It is a pain and my guess is you're getting hung up on the oil pump. See if you can turn the distributor just a bit and/or wiggle the rotor around as you drop the distributor in - the oil pump drive rod often is not perfectly centered in its hole.

Don't worry about staying exactly on TDC with the crank, if you need to rotate it back & forth a bit to get it in, then that's just what it takes. You'll be able to correct for a few degrees off when you set the timing (or you'll be a tooth off on the cam and have to start over.)

One tip is if you have the rotor pointed at the #1 spark plug on the cap before you stab the distributor, it'll almost certainly rotate too far as you stab it... the rotor turns as it meshes with the cam gear so I always start a little bit backwards of where it should end up.

 

[leftcoast]

Thanks I'll try a little backward on the rotor. I did this several years ago without a problem, but this time it is kicking my back side.

 

[keel]

I think it is possible that the oil pump drive shaft is bound up in there if it got pulled upward out of the pump when removing the distributor. I would try pointing a camera down there and maybe poke the top of oil pump drive shaft with a flathead or something to see if it is sticking up too far or stuck.

 

[leftcoast]

I guess my next step is to pull off the plenum to give me better access and then I can look down in there. Maybe that will help me place the distributor in there better. I'll try again on Thursday, thanks.

 

[leftcoast]

So back on this fun project. I got the plenum out of the way, if I lay across the engine bay I can see down there. The oil pump drive shaft was not straight up and down was on an angle. I can push it front to back and side to side easily with a screwdriver. As soon as I removed the screwdriver, it would move right back. I put a bit of grease down there so it would stay put. I have centered it best I could and tried to get the distributor to seat without any luck. Should I try and tap the shaft down a bit? Should it be rigid when connected to oil pump? Thanks for the help.

 

[keel]

So back on this fun project. I got the plenum out of the way, if I lay across the engine bay I can see down there. The oil pump drive shaft was not straight up and down was on an angle. I can push it front to back and side to side easily with a screwdriver. As soon as I removed the screwdriver, it would move right back. I put a bit of grease down there so it would stay put. I have centered it best I could and tried to get the distributor to seat without any luck. Should I try and tap the shaft down a bit? Should it be rigid when connected to oil pump? Thanks for the help.

I think it's pretty normal for it to move around a bit. In my experience it's not going to be a rigid connection. I would not tap it down, if something goes wrong you might end up needing to pull your oil pan off to do damage control. It should slide in and out of the female end of the oil pump without much resistance.

Is this a new distributor or one that was already installed and working before?