You're right Ted. I should have said, "smoother and more efficient running" also. Good luck with the distributor Brian. It might be the reason the dimples are on the shaft it the PO locked the shaft in the oil pump or the distributor when he lost the retainer clip.

 

Was still hung up but pushed it back in and warmed up the oil for about 3 min, (not the block) then it magically came out. Maybe suction effect? I filed off those dimples on the lands of the hex at the end of the distributor shaft and re-installed. I tried to take dist. out again with engine hot but hung up again. I'll try same method above tomorrow and it should come out.

I want to change the advance springs back to the heavy ones that came with the rebuild dist. because the looser springs I got from summit racing made the engine rev like a champ but road test wasn't so good even though the advance was all in at 38* @ 3000 rpm using the light springs. In retrospect, in trying to get to 38* max advance within 3000rpm, just adjust the allen screw in the vacuum canister, not changing advance springs. Ill change back to original stiff ones, I think I had better results, but will see and i will report back later...

 

What was wrong with the road test? Lighter springs might bring the advance in too early, trucks are heavy so it's cut and try with different combinations till it works in your application.

Remember, the distributor is adjusted internally with the vacuum advance disconnected and plugged. 32° - 38° BTDC "all in" is not counting vacuum advance. This is the way the factory OEM set it up anyway.

When satisfied with the acceleration and the way it runs re-connect the vacuum advance and adust the can (only) for steady cruise and part throttle.

 

Well, distributor still was still hung up, even cold. I didn't follow my own advice and let the engine warm up too much because I tried to take it out again and clunk clunk clunk, won't let go of it. So I changed the springs back to the heavy ones and let the vacuum canister adjust the max advance with everything connected. I did get the weaker summit springs to max out at 38* centrifical advance only but the canister added some advance so I had to rotate the allen screw so much that it couldn't add any advance at all. Road tested and it bogged on accel but not horribly. I switched to the ported vacuum to manifold vacuum and it seemed to work better and it reved like a champ but was still a little hesitant road testing so I aborted the whole plan and decided to change back to the heavy springs that the distributor came with. Manifold vacuum is for lumpy cams etc and I didn't want to go that route (not stock). So I did and adjusted the canister to max 38* advance all in around 3200rpm with everything connected and got that pep that I was looking for. I always thought that trucks weren't peppy for some reason. I also noticed that one of the spring tabs was bent slightly more compared to my original old dist. I bent it back. Who knows, I changed a lot a variables - maybe that could have been the ticket, but either way it doesn't matter I am happy with the end result, all stock with reclaimed pep and probably better gas mileage rather than keep experimenting with non stock aftermarket race parts on a truck.

 

Well maybe someday you'll get 'er figured out. Good try though! Super job.

 

Thanks Tedster9! I figured it out enough to get it running better than before, satisfied with the results so nothing more to figure out, just so you know. Tried some things and learned some things and found what worked for me. You are right, Super job, so thanks Tedster9 for the compliment!