Distributor stuck

[Patrick L.]

Originally Posted by shew01

I’ve sprayed penetrating oil all over the base of the distributor and the screw hole on the side of the engine a number of times, and I’ve been banging on the distributor with a screwdriver a bit to set up some vibration. The distributor “rocks” clockwise and counterclockwise a millimeter or so now. That’s a little bit of progress.


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"The distributor “rocks” clockwise and counterclockwise a millimeter"
I don't know what 'rocks' means. Does mean 'rock' back and forth or rotate ? Rotate is bad, back and forth/sideways means its loose and should pop up. If its doing that it seems to me a puller is not needed. That is if I understand what is happening. Soaking, heating and rapping to set up a vibration is good.

[shew01]

Originally Posted by Patrick L.

"The distributor “rocks” clockwise and counterclockwise a millimeter"
I don't know what 'rocks' means. Does mean 'rock' back and forth or rotate ? Rotate is bad, back and forth/sideways means its loose and should pop up. If its doing that it seems to me a puller is not needed. That is if I understand what is happening. Soaking, heating and rapping to set up a vibration is good.

The distributor body rotates back and forth about a millimeter while it is stuck in the head.


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[1931 flamingo]

When I had to remove mine years ago I ended up used a 3" crow bat, luckily I did NOT break the body. FWIW Keep putting ATF and Acetone (50/50) around the mounting surface.
Paul in CT

[arnhemmer]

I used two large screwdrivers wedged under the body on each side of the shaft and resting on top of the water return bulge on top of the head,(for lack of a better description). Gently tapped both screwdrivers forward while using some pt oil taking my time. Eventually the distributor popped up with no damage.

[Y-Blockhead]

Be careful prying on them. Here is one that was repaired at some point. I keep it as a spare.

Originally Posted by shew01

The distributor body rotates back and forth about a millimeter while it is stuck in the head.

If it is rotating, it is loose. The locating pin is preventing it from rotating too far. Keep working it, it will come out.

[Patrick L.]

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Originally Posted by shew01

The distributor body rotates back and forth about a millimeter while it is stuck in the head.


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If the housing rotates/twists/turns then has it come up far enough for the locating pin to be completely out of the head ?

Have you unclamped the ignition cable ? Or maybe the clamp has been removed long ago which is a good thing.

Is the ignition cable still screwed into the housing ? I'm kinda assuming it is as thats normal. But the cable could be removed and unscrewed from the housing.

If its moving it should eventually pop out, I would think. It'll keep taking some persuasion. Keep oiling, heating and persuading.

Its sometimes hard to fix something on such a forum.

[shew01]

Originally Posted by Y-Blockhead

Be careful prying on them. Here is one that was repaired at some point. I keep it as a spare.




If it is rotating, it is loose. The locating pin is preventing it from rotating too far. Keep working it, it will come out.

Thanks for the picture. I’ve been wondering what that pin looked like.


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[shew01]

Eureka! That bad boy finally came out without breaking. I was able to use a bicycle chain style oil filter wrench to put a little upward force on the distributor while rocking it back and forth, and it literally popped out.



I’m going to call it a day before I do break something. Whew! This has been a three day ordeal.




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[IndyA]

Here's how I "did it".... remove the valve cover, put a vice grip on the distributor shaft and cut a length of 2x4 so that one end is on the ground and the other end is under the vice grips so that you can use the 2x4 as a fulcrum by hitting the back end of the vice grips so as to push the gripping end of of the shaft upward... it worked!!!!

[shew01]

What is best way to clean up the rust on the bottom of the distributor shaft? (Please see photos above.)


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[[email protected]]

Recent thread on removing the pin on the clutch shaft assembly was suggested using one of those HF type of inexpensive air impact Chisel to drive out the pin. I have used this tool on several of these clutch arm assembles to remove the pin. It also works great on the door hinge pins. Should work equally as well on a stuck disti body with using the chisel or punch tips... This tool is now one of my go to tools for all of the old rusty and crusty stuff....

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https://www.harborfreight.com/air-im...kit-92037.html

[1crosscut]

Well done on getting it out!!
Use a wire wheel on the rust. If you have a bench grinder with one of the wire wheels on it that would be best. Otherwise a drill with a 4" wire wheel will do fine.

[Y-Blockhead]

Clean out the hole and see if you can get the lower shaft out also and clean it up.

Don't reinstall 'dry'. Coat the bottom with anti-seize or something similar.

[shew01]

Originally Posted by Y-Blockhead

Clean out the hole and see if you can get the lower shaft out also and clean it up.

Don't reinstall 'dry'. Coat the bottom with anti-seize or something similar.

Good idea. I hadn’t thought about the lower shaft. I’m still celebrating the victory of getting the distributor out. [emoji2957] Does the lower shaft tend to get nasty too?


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[shew01]

Would it hurt to use brake cleaner on the distributor to clean the grease off of it?


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[Big hammer]

Brake clean would be ok, dawn dish soap would work also!

God job on getting that out!

[Patrick L.]

Yup, wire brush, grind, sand off the rust. Now from the look of that the shaft and drive gear should come out and be cleaned and checked.

Never-seize when installing and remove every now again, like when re-setting point gap and lubing cam.

[shew01]

Originally Posted by Patrick L.

Yup, wire brush, grind, sand off the rust. Now from the look of that the shaft and drive gear should come out and be cleaned and checked.

Are you talking about this shaft?



I cleaned it the best I could, but it doesn’t want to come out. I tried some long tong tweezers on it, but it did not want to lift. I don’t know of another tool that could get it out of the engine. That’s a fairly dee recess in the head


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[Patrick L.]

That doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. To look at the drive gear the side cover needs to come off.