'70 F250 390/C6. Hasn't been run in 19 mos. Pulled the pan to clean out the sludge and thought I'd replace oil pump and pickup while I'm there. Decided to remove the dist 1st while pan was off so I could prime the new pump. The dist wouldn't budge. Soaked it w/ WD40 and let it sit overnight. Nothing. Got out the pry bars and started lifting on it. Got the body loose,broke off the vacumm advance, body is up out of the manifold about 3/8 of an inch. Afraid if I keep beating on it the upper shaft will separate from the lower. Looked up into the bottom of the motor,I see no rust on the end of the dist,had to pull the oil pump shaft out by hand. Any suggestions to free it would be apreciated. Next idea was to turn the motor by hand and see if the dist was turning at all. The dist was replaced in 2004, worked great till I had to leave it parked,unfortuntley. Its history now,so I'll have to get a new one. Thanks.

 

I'm gonna watch your thread here, I have the same problem. I had to replace the oil pump and shaft on my 390 because it sat so long. Thought I would lift the distributor out to check it out, wouldn't budge... After prying on it a bit I got it to lift about 1/4" and free up a tad but the thing wasn't coming out for nuthin!! Finally gave up and pushed it back down, replaced the rest and she runs fine. I know I want to upgrade to an MSD this coming winter but worried about getting that thing out.

 

Typical scenario. The aluminum body of the distributor will stick to the metal bore of the block, thus making them "one".

Worse case is having to pull the intake so you can get to the lower portion. This either means bust off the distributor body so you can lift intake over it, or just loosen intake and move it around enough to get to lower area leaving distributor alone.

If you can get the seal out of the way and get some penetrating oil to run down the body to allow it to get to the portion stuck in the block, it might help. If you have it loose now, only thing is to continue to work it til it finally comes free. Pipe wrench?? Keep twisting it around as you try to lift it. Of course you have to be careful not to break it off(unless you plan on replacing it anyway)

It does not contact the intake in any form(only the rubber seal), so it's not the intake that holding it. Only the engine block itself.

The only other issue would be the oil pump drive stuck in the bottom of the distributor. Then, what's holding it in is the collar on the shaft that keeps the shaft from coming out with the distributor. Most only chance is to just jerk the distributor out and let the collar fall off. Since you have the pan off, you'll get it and can put if back on again once you pull the oil pump.

When I stripped the 352 from my '56 F100, someone had pounded the distributor in and the shaft was wedged tight out of sequence and was never coming out again. I had to put it in a vise to get the shaft out of distributor.

 

76 FE 360 in F100 Ranger.

Same exact trouble.

As of now i have destroyed the distributor.
Discovered the shafts would have separated had i known about the little spring clip just below rotor, hid by the felt. Oh well hindsight is 20/20.
Intake and heads are off now. Took me days.

I have an irregular piece of aluminum distributor bottom sticking up put of block with shaft protruding. Will post how i get it out.

If anybody else has "Been There Done That" I'd sure appreciate a pointer.

Just finished wrestling rusted manifold bolts out of manifolds. Whew! Now can get heads to shop.....


old jim

 

Well it got ugly.

It wasn't going to budge.

Drilled holes in it and beat in into pieces until had about 3/8 inch of circumference gone.
Grabbed the shaft with vise grips and pulled up till gear was against bottom of distributor base, drove it out by pounding up on the visegrips.

Hammer holding hand has a couple nice blisters, visegrip holding hand is beat to a pulp from the misses and glancing blows.
It was incredibly stubborn.

I'd recommend melting it out with acetylene instead. My mapp gas wasn't hot enough.

old jim

 

What a story! Sounds like my honeymoon.
puttster

 

They can be a real "beeeoch"!

 

That there sounds like a real classic story!! Never seen one that bad........

 

I've had to drive them out from the bottom with a brass drift.

 

Thanks for the kind words, guys. In hindsight i shoulda pulled engine and got it from bottom like you said. Brass drift is a good idea.

Well i found remains of valve seals in the cranckase and a little bit of babbitt so pulled engine. I think babbitt came from #2 camshaft bearing . Cam had got rusty and i had to sand rust off #2 to get it past #1 bearing.

Cylinders are all in great shape except the one with one wrist pin retaining clip left out. I believe that was factory error (or mischief) because i appear to be first person into this engine. All bearings are stamped "Ford" and look about right for 135kmiles. 7 of 8 cylinders almost like new.
#6 cylinder has a groove probably .030 deep where wrist pin rubbed. All others just need light hone, ridge at top is imperceptible.

Would you go with sleeve or oversize piston?

Bearings and rings arrived from Rock Auto this morning.
Bummer.. this started as a carburetor rebuild.

Truck is a gift for son-in-law who's due back from Afghanistan soon.

Wish me luck !

thanks, fellows .

old jim