Distributor won't seat

[carcraft302]

I posted on my old thread that my new MSD distributor wouldn't seat, but the old distributor (minus gear) seemed to seat OK. The MSD sat about 0.124 inches to high. Well I got it fixed and wanted to share a little of my joy. Heres how I did it. I took a dowl about the same size as the distributor shaft and measured the hight of the oil pump rod by marking it against the opening in the block for the distributor. I got some assembly lube and put a tiny blob on the end of the MSD shaft and put the distributor in and rotated the shaft. The blob wasn't squished. Next I took a tiny blob of grease on the bottom of the gear, rotated the distributor and no squish. Went to the parts store and measured the depth of the rod hole in the old distributor and the MSD. The MSD was deeper. I put the MSD in and was going to use feeler guages to measure the exact distance. I noticed the distributor could be pushed down but "sprang" back to the original position. I put the old distributor back in and noticed it was a little proud to. I tapped on the old distibutor shaft with a hammer and it "gave". I taped until it seemed "solid". The MSD now seats fine and the pump rod didn't move. I think the pump rod retainer was out of position . Thank God I didn't have to pull the engine again..the joys oh the joys

 

[v-8power]

Glad you have it worked out. Do you like that MSD dizzy?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Better to have the pump shaft too tall than too short

 

[carcraft302]

distributor won't seat

Tes I do. I got the engine running once minus oil pump shaft and the MSD seems like a really good product. Very well built..

 

[fordpwr89]

thats not good starting your engine without the oil pump shaft. Now is your engine a roller cam? if so you have to get a dist with a steel gear or buy the replacement steel gear for your dist. the cast gears on dist for non roller cam 302 dont mesh with the steel cam in a roller motor vice versa so do some research. flat tappet cam requires cast gear and roller cam uses the steel gear. it will run for a short period if you dont have it right but will destroy both cam and dist and fill your motor full of metal shavings