i'm trying to get the gear off the end of my distributor so i can change the pickup coil

is there a way to do this without a gear puller? i tried tapping it with a block of wood but it just eats the wood. i thought i'd heat up the gear, then wiggle it off, then heat it up again. has anyone done this?

 

The gear at the bottom of the distributor has a pin through it, and the shaft it sits on, so you have to push that pin out with an awl, and possibly a light tap of a wooden hammer if its stuck. Once the pin is out, the gear slides right down the shaft.

 

i already took the two pins out but the gear refuses to slide off. i've hit the gear about as much as i dare with a block of wood and a hammer. i'm worried i might break the little bearing in the top of the distributor. i thought some heat directly on the gear might help it slide off?

 

Find someone with a press and have it done right. A gear puller can work but can also mess up the oil pump shaft end if not carefull. I went to a machine shop had it pulled off and new one put on for thirty bucks. Way cheaper than a new dist...

 

The gear is a "light interference fit", and is also pinned in place. Once you take the pin out, the difficulty of getting the gear off varies from one vehicle to the next. Typically, it won't just come off, and has to be pressed or driven off. You can drive it off with a hammer and vise, but it takes some thought and care in how you do it. A truck gear will be cast iron, and it is brittle and a tooth will shatter if you concentrate too much stress in one place.

Mark the relationship between the gear and shaft. If it has been off before, there may be an extra hole through the shaft. Plus, you will need to get the alignment accurate when you drive the gear back on, because you can't drive the roll pin back in unless the alignment is right on.

Take the bowl off the distributor. (Two screws). This will make the assembly a little easier to work with. Invert the distributor and hang it by the top (now bottom) of the gear between the two jaws of a vise. Make sure both sides of the gear bear evenly on the jaws, and that there is no concentrated stress on the gear teeth. (You aren't trying to clamp the gear between the jaws, just use it as a fixture in your improvised "press".) Now use a block of wood and a hammer to pound the shaft down through the gear. You can use a bit of PB Blaster or Kroil to help it move.

A bit of heat on the hub of the gear will help. Don't go crazy, not cherry red, just enough to thermally expand the hub away from the shaft.

Brass drifts, soft-faced hammers, pieces of aluminum conduit, etc are all helpful in this endeavor, especially when it comes time to get the gear back on.

I was able to "practice" on the distributor from a parts car in my "collection". I got that gear off and back on with only mild butchery, and did a semi-professional job on my second try with the one from my truck.

Keep in mind that a rebuilt distributor, with new bushings and a new pickup coil already in place, can be had for around $90.00

 

the book said to use a gear puller. so i borrowed one from canadian tire, barely got it tightened when it split the end of the shaft right open. in hindsight i should have used some heat just to loosen the gear. i really didn't expect it to split right open like that. at least it broke on my tool bench and not inside the engine. i even got the core refund. with that a remanufactured distributor with a coil came to 60$.

only thing i'm worried about is the old distributor had a polished surface for the ignition control module and the new one not polished. i read in some of the posts that ford switched to a remote ICM. i thought maybe i got stuck with a distributor for one of these models. but the part number matches and there's the slot for the ICM to plug into the coil as well as the two holes to screw on the ICM.

i'm guessing the polished surface on the back of the ICM and the distributor is so the distributor can absorb some of the heat. as long as i put my di-electric grease on there i should be OK?

 

truck starts now. i put in the new distributor with the new ICM and pickup coil in there. i think the culprit was the pickup coil cuz when it wasn't starting i couldn't smell any gas and i recall reading in one of the other threads that a bad pickup will cancel out the fuel pump

anyway, the truck started, and died on the first try. on the second try i held the gas a little while and it stayed running. i didn't get any check engine light even though it ran really rough for a while and doesn't seem to want to low idle even when i tap the gas. it did slow down a bit after running a few minutes but not like it used to low idle after like only 10 seconds.

i'm pretty sure i got the distributor back spot on. i put it in and took it out a few times to make sure i had it the way it was before but i can't say for sure cuz i've never done that before. i tried lifting it out, turning the shaft a little and setting it down on the next cog on the gear and each time i did that it would go way off so i'm pretty sure i got it right the first time

i read somewhere you can't adjust the timing on these EFI trucks, but that the computer makes some or other adjustments to keep everything right. the engine was shaking a little at first but it smoothed out. is it possible that the timing was off a little but the computer adjusted it??

there was also some black smoke at first and it was chugging like a train but that went away after a couple of minutes

 

Hook up a timing light, disconnect the SPOUT jumper, start the truck, and set the timing to 10 BTDC. Put the SPOUT jumper back when you are done.

The timing certainly is adjustable. In fact, you must adjust it when you change out the distributor. Each pickup coil is a little different, and a new distributor may not fire in exactly the same point in its rotation as the old one. The use of the marks is just to get the engine to start and run well enough to set the timing properly.

The notion of "can't adjust the timing" is to discourage would-be shadetree tuneup mechanics. There are no points to wear and cause the timing to change. There are no mechanical advance weights or vacuum diaphragm to cause timing variability. The base setting of 10 BTDC will not change by itself, once set. The computer controls the amount of timing advance, based on engine load and speed, from the basic 10 BTDC setting. It will accept feedback from a knock sensor, in some engines, to attempt to limit engine damage if the timing is over-advanced or the gasoline too poor. But other than that, it is totally dependent on you to adjust the distributor when installed.

After you get the timing set, disconnect the battey for a few minutes. Start the truck and drive it around for a bit. Let the computer relearn the idle control strategy. That may improve the idle quality.