Gotcha but the 3 distributors I looked at today, 1 at Autozone and 2 at Oreillys did not have paint spots on them and I mentioned that to the sales guys and they didnt see any either.

I deal directly with my mechanic and he would not install the wrong part. He did tell me to purchase both the steel and the cast from nappa and when he pulls the distributor he would make sure to install the correct one.
Nappa is pretty far from me and I have not checked to see if they would go along with that.

I cannot pull the distributor myself because I have nowhere to work and its my only vehicle, if something goes haywire I would be in a bind. If I did have another vehicle I would have done this and alot of other work by now, like when I had my Jeep, (RIP 95 Jeep)

Thanks Tim

 

You aren't looking for the paint spot on the distributor you are going to buy, you are looking for the paint spot on the OEM distributor you pull out of your engine.
The replacement distributor probably won't be marked the same way as Ford did it. The gear material will be labeled in some other way.

If you can't afford to the time to leave the vehicle with the mechanic and let him pull it and buy the correct replacement and install it, then about all you can do is buy all three options and make sure you can get a refund on the ones you don't use.

I think the safest bet is to just let your mechanic pull it and order the correct replacement, but you have to trust your mechanic and you have to have other transportation while you wait for the part to arrive and the work to get done.

Steve

 

I thought maybe the new one would have a spot on it as well to match up to the old one.
Thanks Steve

 

Nick, Maillemaker has good advice!

There is even a fourth alternative, which is the one I chose.

This may seem complicated but it isn't if your mechanic is trusted, knowledgeable and experienced.

Just place your existing gear on your new distributor.

A machine shop will need to do it. And I suggest a General Machine shop rather than an auto machine shop, unless the latter has the correct equipment to cross drill and pin the distributor shaft as it was on the old distributor.

This not only ensures that the gear which is on your existing distributor will mate to the gear on your existing cam shaft, but ALSO that it is positioned on the same place along the length of the shaft.

What you do is buy the best aftermarket distributor you can find, take it to your mechanic, have your mechanic pull your distributor (with piston #1 at top dead center on the the compression stroke - remember it is a four stroke engine so the piston goes up twice and only once is it on the compression stroke) and the mechanics tells the machine shop:

"Alright, remember I already made an appointment with you to do this and my customer is waiting and it is his only vehicle... So take off the gear on the old distributor and put it on the exact same place on this new distributor."

That way not only do you get a distributor with a gear which cam gear was made for, but you get it put on the distributor shaft exactly where it was on your old distributor.

Finally, I don't like how you arrived at the conclusion that your PIP signal is bad. I would have felt more confidence in your conclusion if you had followed the troubleshootmyvehicle.com decision tree to the "T." But I will tell you this. I had similar symptoms in the 5.8L in my 1995 Bronco, and it has NEVER exhibited those symptoms since I replaced/rebuilt the distributor. I put the old gear on the new old stock (NOS) one, but since the hall effect PIP signal generator is effectively a magnet, it may have been a mistake to use NOS which necessarily had an old magnet in it. Your new distributor with your old gear is likely better because the magnet will be new.

 

Never ever seen a stock Ford distributor with a bronze gear.

 

Remove the driver's side valve cover, then one rocker arm. Then pull the pushrod out and measure it. Roller cam 351 pushrods are 7.567 inches long. Flat tappet engines are about a half inch longer.
The steel gears have a machined finish all over, cast are rough on the non machined areas. 94 was a transition year for flat tappet to roller cams in the 351

 

Yes, I had thought about those options and possibly just replacing the PIP. I have not asked my mechanic if he can do just that.

Leaning towards the PIP going bad because the coil is about 6 months old, I had to replace it when I had the plugs & wires replaced. I had Motorcraft plugs and Ford wires installed. I have recently replaced the ECM and Fuel pump relays and the Fuel pressure regulator and the Fuel pressure is good.

The ICM along with the cap and rotor were replaced Approx. 4 to 5 years ago, not that they could not have gone faulty in that short amount of time, Battery is only a year old or so.
Its just speculation, Like I posted before, I have no way of testing everthing because the crank no start issue is extremely intermittent.
It could be something as simple as a minor crack in the cap and the thermal expansion makes it worse.



I dont know if you saw my other post but today I drove all around (way more than normal) and it started fine evertime and when I got home I turned it off and it started right back up, when normally I would drive it that much it would not start after letting it sit for a few minutes.

Going to check the cap and rotor and if they are good I will let it be and keep driving it and see if it gets worse in the summer heat, I am kinda hoping it will not start at all so I can finally narrow down what the problem is.

Thanks guys.

 

Caps and rotors don't last 4-5 years, not even the brass terminal ones. They should have been replaced with the plugs and wires.

 

Nick that was my initial plan too. But the hall effect sensor is kinda difficult to remove. You cannot remove it from the top.

And once I got my old distributor out, I could feel it wobble because both the shaft and the bushing had worn because of the many miles on the distributor.

So, I decided that the new distributor with my old gear was the best way to go.

Oh, and Nick one thing about the vans. I have been told that they are the "red headed step children of the F-Series." I don't know about yours, but I have a combination of SAE nuts and bolts and Metric on my 2002 E350. I don't know if this is true or not, but I was told that basically if they had left over parts, they used them in the vans. So you don't really know what you have until you have carefully examined what you have. And not just examined what is in the manual.

 

I have no idea - I was just going by what the chart up-thread said for 351 engines.

I just recently replace the dizzy on my 1990 E350. My problem was that when the engine got hot, the engine would stumble and die like it was out of gas. Would run fine on the interstate, but as soon as you slowed down, bang, it stumbled and died. Wait 20-40 minutes, started right up again. Not a vacuum in the tank as I popped the cap to check that. I first replaced the ICM, drove all through the winter thought I had it licked. First trip out this spring, bang, got me again in Atlanta traffic as we got into town and the traffic slowed.

No problems since replacing the dizzy, and after reading other similar problems where it was the PIP, I'm pretty sure it was the PIP. While they were there they replaced plugs and wires. Engine has 78,000 miles on it.

The idea of swapping the gear is good, too.

Steve

 

After looking into distributors, the only stock replacements available are very poor quality, every review I have read on Oreillys, Autozone, and online say the same thing, The barrel pin holding on the gear shears off That would be a bad day. I believe they are all made by the same company, Spectra.
I may have to buy one and send my stock one in to have it rebuilt then have it reinstalled.
Have not decided yet.