Retarding dist.
 

i've got a problem and its happened to be twice in back to back trips to the track.

i've been testing my car i guess in get ready for next year before i box it up and put it away. out of six total runs. my distributer has "walked " on me to the point that the car will not run. the last time was last night in the last time shot of the night. i heard some poping at the big end but, nothing to bad. after the run i shut it down and coasted on to the return road. i swiched it back to gas to cook the motor and thus shorten the time to put it in the trailor. everything was fine and then it just stoped.

it would not start. right there in the dark checking everything i could. did i knock a wire out taking off my gloves and coller, to seeing if the trigger light was strobbing with the box. finally the distributer had to be the cause. number 1 wire didn't look like it was in the right place. so i turned it. it was actually the seconf time i tried. the first time it seemed tight with some light torque of my hands. i didn't waant to send the timing to hell and back. so this time i put a little *** to it and sure enough it rturned and the car started.

so what could be causing this. the distributer is about 10 years old but it should be ok. but, is there something else? i'm a big guy and i craked that down the first time and my buddy alan is bigger than me and he put some *** on it. but, yet it does this..... twice now so i have to address this. i could check the timing ever single time. but, who wants to do that.

Re: Retarding dist.
 

Carlos, Have you had the dist out, or done any internal work on the engine? It sounds like the clearance between the dist and oil pump drive rod is too tight, which is forcing the dist shaft into the dist housing. If that is the case, I have seen it snap the oil pump housing. If you haven't done any work, sounds like the dist shaft is binding in the housing and trying to seize causing the dist to move
Chuck

Re: Retarding dist.
 

thats a very intersting point.

talking to my friends, they figured the problem was caused by the threaded rod in the intake manifold stripping the threads in the intake and over time torqueing down on the nut to "hold" the distributer in place was no longer working. so yesterday i went out to the trailor to "j B weld" in place. problem was the threads looked good. so i just changed over on to the other side of the distributer. when i pulled the distributer out the oil pump rod came with it. in truth this has really aways happened with this motor, but now after your post i don't know. what can i do?