I just replased new distributor had bad ignition module, ran great died today got it home thought it was timing chain, pulled valve cover, valves moved ok. distributor is rotating,when I pulled distributor, gear at bottom had metal shavings, looked down hole the base where it sits was broken almost in half. Dont know if that part is on block or cam. this is all the way at very bottom of distributor

 

They sell rebuilt distributors for these with both a steel gear and cast iron, all before the changeover some time in the 90's should take cast iron unless a roller cam or aftermarket with steel drive gear is installed at some point. A steel dizzy gear will eat the teeth off a cast flat tappet drive gear and vice versa. What's the part number of your distributor?

 

I think he is saying the block casting is broken down inside the engine.

 

So is it the Dizzy gear (red Circle) or the Cam gear (green circle) if it is Dizzy, you can replace the dizzy gear fairly easy (or get a new dizzy all together) if it is cam gear, its time to replace the cam.


If it is just the dizzy, you'll have to flush your system and get all the parts and pieces out, change oil, install a magnetic oil plug

 

it is inside the engine where the spenner of distributor turns above cam

 

the distributor is a duralast gold #BDLG-FD04

 

Sorry but I'm not understanding your description?? I'm sure trying to though, try this pic the cam (laying flat green circle) is in your engine, the distributor (red circle) runs down a hole in the front and its gears mesh with the camshaft, below the dizzy you have the oil pump shaft and it is not split in two, it locks into the bar that goes across the bottom of your dizzy shaft (look at bottom of shaft)

 

if this is what your seeing when you look down the distributor hole, this isn't broke, (caveat, I have no idea what vehicle this pic is from, but is used for reference only) the bottom pin in your distributor locks into this and meshes with the cam gear and turns your oil pump.

 

Check to see if the roll pin in the distributor gear is sheared. I don't know a whole lot about SBF's but some reading says the gear if not set up properly can bottom out and when the dizzy is clamped down put too much load on it so either the roll pin snaps or oil pump shaft breaks. Some SBC dizzys have slip collars for that.

BTW, 302's use a 1/4" hex key pump drive instead of flat like the 460 and Chevy. You dang Ford guys have too much crap that changes between everything.

 

will post picture&video when i get home

 

this is what i thought was bad ,<br/>but looks like is where the dissy gears to cam .

 

cant get video on post. But as it turns over sounds like its not fireing, seems to be spinning really fast, checked fire on #1 spark plug it has fire, also put finger over spark plug hole has compression, rotor is turning, when it killed i was at stop lite it just killed as though turned off key, no odd noises,

 

Take the dist cap off and watch the rotor as you turn the engine over with a ratchet and socket on the crankshaft pulley(or the belts if they are tight enough). Turn the engine one way till the the rotor moves and then stop and turn the engine the other way till the rotor turns again. If you can turn the engine a lot before the rotor starts turning when you change direction, there may be a lot of slop in the timing chain and it may have jumped a tooth or two.

 

thanks franklin2 will try it out tommorow

 

First off the hole is fine, it's supposed to look like that. One less thing to worry about, right?

We need to get back this metal shavings deal though. How does the bottom of the distributor gear look? How does what you can see of the cam gear look?

As far as not starting it may be as simple as the distributor wasn't bolted down tight enough and it turned. Pull the "spout plug" off (little jumper block in the distributor harness, disables computer controlled timing) and put a timing light on it while starting to see where it's firing.