Dizzy won't fully seat no matter what! Any tricks I don't know of?

[sexybluelady]

Soooo, my dumb butt took out my distributor to test to see if it was bad when I was having a no starting issue. But now I can't get the thing to fully seat no matter what I do. I've never had such a hard time getting a distributor back in. I've used every trick that I know of that has always worked for me in the past. Applying pressure to the dizzy while rotation the motor over by hand. Loosly threading the dizzy bolt back in and turning over the motor. Heck, I've even did the last ditch effort of putting a tiny o-ring around the oil pump shaft to make so that it is standing up 100% straight. I've wiggled and giggled the distributor back and forth, up and down, side to side..... And it still won't fully seat. I'm loosing my mind and my cool. It's been three days that I've been playing with getting this thing to fully seat back in. I need my truck for my jobs and it's ice and snow out. So me walking around is, no bieno.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Make absolutely sure no debris fell into the hole and you don't have any surprise wires or vacuum hoses caught in the way. Look in the hole to make sure everything looks all right.

 

[sexybluelady]

Make absolutely sure no debris fell into the hole and you don't have any surprise wires or vacuum hoses caught in the way. Look in the hole to make sure everything looks all right.

Thank you. I did that, but heck I'm at the point where it won't hurt to check it out again tomorrow.

 

[bobbywalter]

how far from the base?

 

[bobbywalter]

the drive shaft may have slid through the keeper a bit and is choking it up. unless it came out and dropped in next to the pump drive

 

[sexybluelady]

how far from the base?

It's between 1/8"-3/16" from fully seating

 

[Shran]

If you're that close are you sure that the O ring isn't too big and that's what's holding you up? Did you replace the o-ring?

You could try to turn the crankshaft just a little by hand with a ratchet if for some reason it's not fully meshing with the cam.

Usually in my case it has been the drive shaft gear won't line up with the drive end on the distributor, or the drive shaft is sideways just a tiny bit in the hole, or the cam won't mesh with the distributor drive gear. Can be quite frustrating.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’ve had them drop right in and I’ve also spent a lot of time arguing with them. The last cam synchro I did, the wrong one dropped right in every time (took a bit of in and out before I realized it was the wrong one) and the correct one fought me for awhile. Go figure.

 

[sexybluelady]

Ended up calling over a long time buddy of mines who is also a retired master mechanic. The both of us were able to get it in. What a PITA. Now I'm dealing with classic lack of power and bucking over 2krpm. LMAO I swear my truck hates me right now. Tomorrow I'll start the diagnose train. Spark tests, compression, fuel pressure test, check out all my grounds. Etc, etc, etc....

I'm at the point now where I think it's time to save up to swap in a 302. I'm over the 2.9. Plus it has almost 900k miles on the clock. I've kept this baby alive long enough.

 

[Jazzer]

Could you please list what your solution to the dizzy crisis was? Someone searching later might run on to this thread and be interested in the details to your fix. Thanks!

-Jazzer

 

[Eddo Rogue]

If you're that close are you sure that the O ring isn't too big and that's what's holding you up? Did you replace the o-ring?

You could try to turn the crankshaft just a little by hand with a ratchet if for some reason it's not fully meshing with the cam.

Usually in my case it has been the drive shaft gear won't line up with the drive end on the distributor, or the drive shaft is sideways just a tiny bit in the hole, or the cam won't mesh with the distributor drive gear. Can be quite frustrating.

Its amazingly frustrating how specific o rings dimensions sizes can be. Universal replacements or kits never have one that fits for me.

 

[sexybluelady]

Could you please list what your solution to the dizzy crisis was? Someone searching later might run on to this thread and be interested in the details to your fix. Thanks!

-Jazzer

There's nothing to really post, it was just, keep on wiggling it back and forth until getting it to seat....

 

[Jazzer]

Thanks!