Distributor Fitment

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Oct 22, 2019 | 04:11 PM

Mitchapalooza85

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Joined: Nov 2018

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Distributor Fitment

My original 302 motor blew some years back, I was able at the time to get my hands on a new built short block for a decent price.
Well let me tell you, I've gone through 3 distributors with about 6k miles. I wasn't very knowledgeable then when it came to working on older motors.
So lets fast fwd to this year, I set the timing on the 4th HEI Distributor with a Bronze gear & just slight applied the hold down bolt for the distributor to the block & it seemed to rev up great but... when I actually tighten down more pressure to that same hold down bolt the truck started to hesitate more when revving the motor. Could a distributor sit too low in the block? This might be why I'm having seized shafts on the previous distributors.

Oct 22, 2019 | 04:34 PM

Tedster9

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Joined: Apr 2002

Posts: 19,311

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From: Waterloo, Iowa

Dimensions are important. Dig around online, should be able to find them for your motor. Measure the distributor with the end play taken out from the bottom of the gear to housing flange. Y-blocks for example had a problem with shortage of cores so the "rebuilders" were supplying franken-distributors pieced together that aren't correct. The engineering dimensions are specified within just a few thousandths of inch.

Oct 27, 2019 | 08:55 PM

baddad457

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Joined: May 2003

Posts: 11,141

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From: south louisiana

Being an HEI distributor, those measurements would be suspect. There's only about 10-20 thousandths to play with here.

Oct 29, 2019 | 10:39 PM

jimbbski

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Joined: Nov 2009

Posts: 666

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From: Chicago area

I have to mention one thing here. Where did the short block you bought come from? Was it a roller cam engne? If so that's your problem. You would need to use a steel dist. gear and not bronze.