Hi. The end is in sight for my intake manifold gasket repair. It has been a challenge because I'm not too experienced and I get 15 minutes per week to work on it.
I marked the distributor before I pulled it, and I can't get it to seat the last 3/16" or so. My shop manual said to crank the engine just a bit with it in to get it to seat, but that didn't do it. I hesitate to crank too much.
Any advice is appreciated. If it doesn't show in my post I have a 302 in an f 250.
Thanks, dan

 

Dan your saying 3/16ths so that means your gear is lined up, it's just dropping it into the oil pump drive, If your in wear the distributor is suppose to be you can crank the motor over and it will drop into the slot. remove the rotor, push down on the distributor evenly and jump the starter solenoid, till it plops in, then bring the engine back to TDC and make sure your marks are close. Should have no problemo

 

Thanks. You're saying I need to keep pressure on it while cranking, right? I'd better do some research on bringing things to TDC first. Dan

 

Too bad you even pulled the dist. That's the one good thing about a Ford 302/351w. You can sneak the manifold out from underneath the dist without pulling it. I guess you see that now after it's too late.

If you have the valve covers off, it's easy to figure out TDC on #1 cylinder. If the valve covers are on and you do not want to take them off, you will have to pull the sparkplug out of #1 cylinder and get someone to turn the engine by hand while you hold your finger in the sparkplug hole to try and plug it off. When you feel air pressure trying to push your finger out, start looking at the timing marks, you are getting ready to hit #1 TDC when the mark comes around.

If the mark comes around and you do not feel lots of pressure, you are 180 out and have to keep turning till the mark comes around again.

 

As David7.3 said, Its not lining up with the oil pump drive shaft at the bottom of the distibutor. That's the last 3/16" to seat properly. If you have a 1/4" nut driver or 1/4" bit holding tool, you can insert it and turn the shaft a small amount. Should line up and seat then. If you look at the bottom of the distributor, you will see the 1/4" internal "socket" that the shaft must line up in.

Oil pump shaft in center of distributor hole.

 

Sometimes packing the boss with thick grease keeps the shaft from flopping over to the side.

 

Thanks a bunch guys. I have a better idea what to look for tomorrow. I was going to wait on my leaking valve covers, but I might as well do them too now.

 

Okay, I had my wife crank the truck while I held down the dizzy and it dropped right in. Simple and quick. I figured since I hadn't cranked the truck without the dizzy, and since I marked it and put it back on the marks, I could probably get away without resetting tdc, etc, so I closed everything up and tried to start the truck. No luck. It cranks but doesn't catch at all. Now I need to troubleshoot this. It is getting fuel, because it is leaking either out of the filter or the carb right next to the filter. I'm guessing no spark. During the project I changed the cap and rotor, as well as the pickup coil. I also changed the coil, plugs, and wires. I assume I have made some error here.
My first question is this; I assume that even if the timing was seriously off I would get some stuttering attempt at ignition. Am I wrong?
Second, can I hook up my timing light to check the plug wires to see if there is current present when cranking?
Third, is there any thing I should focus on first other than the wires?
thanks, Dan.

 

You can use your timing light to see if there is spark. It won't tell you the quality of the spark, but if there is something in the wire it will trigger the light.

If you have spark, stop cranking the engine, take the aircleaner off, and look down the carb throat. Push back on the throttle arm while looking and see if you have two streams of gas pouring into the engine. If you don't, you don't have any fuel.

 

Thanks. I'll check this evening. Woodworking is much easier.

 

Connect your timing light to the coil secondary wire going TO the distributor, in order to take the cap, rotor ect out of the equation when first trying to diagnose no spark.

 

Thanks. I was going to start there. Good to hear that I'm on the right track.

 

In the past I've accidentally installed the distributor at TDC of the exhaust stroke instead of TDC on the compression stroke; in that position the engine obviously won't start, but it doesn't even attempt to fire - just cranks & cranks.

Before taking the distributor out, I would remove your No.1 plug again (front cylinder on the passenger side), turn the engine over by hand, & check that you are on the correct stroke, & at TDC.

The rotor should then be pointing to the No.1 plug wire terminal on the distributor cap.......if it's not, the distributor will need to be re-installed, with the rotor facing the right way.
Because of the angle of the gear teeth, the rotor will turn slightly as the distributor drops down. You need to allow for that, so the rotor finishes up facing the No. 1 terminal.

 

Thanks. I researched threads on that, but my hope was that since I put the dizzy back in the same exact way it was removed, and never cranked the engine with it out, it should at worst be a few degrees out. Is it possible to be 180 degrees out doing it that way?

 

Yeah, what Ken said.... If you cranked the engine with the starter and then dropped the distributor in when it was then able to fall freely, there's a REAL good chance the rotor is now noplace close to #1 on the cap when the piston is at TDC on the compression stroke.

From what I remember, there's a pretty large area under the cap where the rotor could be construed as "pointing at number one" and it's pretty easy to re-insert the distributor "off by one tooth" even though it may look like it's properly oriented. The distributor gives you only so much back-and-forth movement to compensate for that.

In any event... yeah, I would do as Ken said and pull the distributor and #1 plug, set the engine at TDC on the compression stroke, and reinsert the distributor again. If it won't seat, a 1/4"-drive socket on a long extension can be inserted into the hole to rotate the oil pump shaft a bit, then try again. (It's not a bad idea to use duct tape to hold the socket to the extension as extra insurance that it doesn't come off.)

It's also possible you don't have your wiring installed correctly or tightly, especially that which goes to the coil.