Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Can’t get dist to engage oil pump

Lost in the 60s · President

Did you get a different distributor, or is this the same one the engine was built with ?
How hard have you pushed down on the cap to get it to drop in further ? Yes, it should drop all the way down by itself, but there may be a foreign object that fell in the intake, while it was out.
Last, really dumb question, but you do have the gasket on it ?

jim larson · 2K+ Club

I think the distributor finally dropped down. is there a way to check for sure? I think I am a little paranoid. Yes gasket is in. Dist hole was plugged while dist was out. Yes the same dist as when engine was rebuilt. Engine seemed to run fine; but timing not checked and set.

-- Edited by jim larson on Wednesday 2nd of March 2022 08:41:58 PM

Lost in the 60s · President

Only visually to check. If the base is sitting firmly on the gasket, it should be down.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

It would be nice to have one of those special tools to line up the oil pump slot.

Lost in the 60s · President

jim larson wrote:
It would be nice to have one of those special tools to line up the oil pump slot.

You do, it's a long screw driver. Every time I pull a distributor, I turn the pump shaft BACK about the width of the slot and the distributors drop right in.

John D · 2K+ Club

Getting one to seat can be a bit frustrating... The inherent problem is the helical cut gears. The slot in the OP needs to be "ahead" of where you think it should be, as the drive tang on the distributor rotates as it goes in.

As long as you've got the correct gear teeth meshed (in respect to initial #1 timing), just bump/turn the engine over a few complete turns (with down-pressure on the dist.) and it'll drop in. Now comes the fun part - re-verify your timing/#1 location. Because of the "twist" with the helical gears, you may be 1/2 "cap space" off! Arggg.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

I’ve used a long screwdriver to tweak the oil pump drive and help align it to the the distributor shaft.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

dashboard wrote:
I’ve used a long screwdriver to tweak the oil pump drive and help align it to the the distributor shaft.

I have done that a few years ago. So I tried that again and would not recommend it. You have to climb in on top of the engine to be able to see down the hole if the engine is in the car. So what happened, I broke the heater core fitting loose. Well just another project. Deciding if I can loop the two hoses together. I blocked them off.. for now.