Dist drive gear on cam

B

Bruce Compton Canada

Senior Member
Help : I've just had a disrtibutor shaft seize solid in the dist. housing,causing the distributor to swing aruond till the vacuum advance hit the head. Both cap and rotor were broken and the driven gear pin sheared off. I was wondering if any damage could be done to the drive gear on the cam as it appears to be an integral part of the cam, not a pressed on later part? Sure not looking forward to removing the cam. Thanks : Bruce
 
Used to see the same thing happen on sbf's when they would pick up a piece of broken valve seal & lock up the oil pump. Usually would just twist the oil pump shaft or shear the dist pin. Never saw one that ate the cam gear. You can probably look down through the dist hole & ck that out. I would ck the oil pump too to make sure that's ok. Dont know why the dist would turn, was it loose?
 
What happened is that the distributor shaft seized solid in the distributor housing bushing and this action caused the whole distributor to rotate about 150 degrees untill the vacuum advance unit hit the cylinder head. I'm sure at this point the pin holding the gear on the dist. shaft sheared. When I removed the dist., the gear felt very tight on the shaft and I assumed that the problem was with the cam gear. I soon discovered that the pin had in fact sheared and being the weak link prevented any further damage, especially to the cam. I installed my spare dist., re-timed the engine and all is well. Thanks : Bruce
 
Most older distributors I have checked have old lube in the top bushing that is sticky and not acting like lube. They can usually be flushed and cleaned with lots of ATF in the oil cup. Keep flushing till the shaft turns free.
 
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