1988 f250 5.8l. I had engine rebuilt, it now has about 100k on motor.
I am on distributor #4 since rebuild. What happens over time is the distributor
seizes up and the gear shears the pin. I just put in my 4th distributor
and I am frustrated trying to determine if its the engine, or every
distributor is cheaply made. This has nothing to do with the distributor or cam gear. The shaft becomes very tight to spin.

Has anyone experience this issue? Any ideas what could be the cause? We are talking about less then 25k on a each.

 

Are these Ford distributors or aftermarket junk?

 

You shouldn't be going threw distributor like that no matter if there aftermarket or not. I switched over to the msd that I have now after my stock ford one went bad . The msd distibutor been in my truck two years with no problems. I'd have to say it's sumthing in the motor if the gear is chearing the pin . Not 100% sure Whats causeing it just a guess. maybe sum one else will no good luck

 

Yeah but he didn't say whether he had been thru several different brands or several of the same brand.

If it's several of the same brand of aftermarket or aftermarket-rebuilt distributors then yeah I can see why they'd fail one after the other. Some brands just suck. For example, I'll never buy ANY hydraulic component that has been rebuilt by A-1 Cardone.

 

What oil pump and shaft are you using in your engine?

 

This thread from Aug 2015 came up as a “related thread” to one that I was reading.

Ed2, I see you were active back in March of this year. I am curious if you found the cause of your distributor failures. You asked for help determining the cause and then never came back…..