ksmith thanks for pointing out the locking tabs. I don't think mine has the tabs up, but I will make sure. All of my sockets, including the 1/4" drive are too tall to fit between the gear for the distributor and the timing gear bolts. It is also very difficult to get in there with my box end wrenches. Along with that since the center of the timing gear retainer looks like it will not go over the distributor gear I believed that I really needed to remove distrib gear. But as ol'blue said it will fit so now I just need to get the right tool to do the job, whether a shorter socket or a thin walled box end. When I get back to this I will put a note up to let you know what I did and how it worked.

I have been spending some time trying to do some cleanup before winter, getting fenders off the boxes so that I can get everything in the new shed before the neighbors complain and I loose all my junk -- err I mean all my priceless jailbar parts.