[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by dataway

What would have been the end result if the problem was not addressed? Loss of oil pump drive? Eventual destruction of the dizzy gear (and loss of oil pump drive)? Wouldn't think it would contaminate oil too bad, would just get washed into the pan and filtered.

Maybe eventual wonky timing readings or failure of the reluctor?

I can't even begin to fathom that it didn't already have wonky timing readings. With a shaft moving around that much and beating up the reluctor wheel I see no way this thing had rock steady timing. Eventually it would have just damaged the reluctor wheel or magnet to a point the engine would have died or started severely misfiring.

I've had old worn distributors before, and timing jumps all over the place which is why I can't imagine these guys didn't catch it back when I mentioned it was a likely cause.

[chiphead]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

I can't even begin to fathom that it didn't already have wonky timing readings. With a shaft moving around that much and beating up the reluctor wheel I see no way this thing had rock steady timing. Eventually it would have just damaged the reluctor wheel or magnet to a point the engine would have died or started severely misfiring.

I've had old worn distributors before, and timing jumps all over the place which is why I can't imagine these guys didn't catch it back when I mentioned it was a likely cause.

The top bearing was still in good shape. Without a major rotor phasing error, the timing will be pretty steady. You would have to check it pretty closely to find it. Maybe the old 1 to 6 cyl timing check. Any engine with a lumpy cam is going to have some spark scatter when you check the timing.

Eventually the reluctor wheel would have contacted the pickup hard enough to damage the pickup coil or shear a roll pin in the shaft. If you were lucky, the dizzy would fail and the engine would refuse to run.

Worst case, it would have run until the oil pump shaft started to bind in the retainer loop that is cast into the block. That would really grind the driveshaft and make metal. If the distributor continued to operate, the oil pump shaft could bind up, twist out of position and fall into the crankshaft, with disastrous results. If you look at that oil pump shaft, you can see where it's got witness marks where its already dragging in the loop. The only time I've seen something like that, was out of my Pontiac 350 with a totally clapped-out HEI distributor.

Glad everybody was paying attention to noises. This could have lunched the motor.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by chiphead

The top bearing was still in good shape. Without a major rotor phasing error, the timing will be pretty steady. You would have to check it pretty closely to find it. Maybe the old 1 to 6 cyl timing check. Any engine with a lumpy cam is going to have some spark scatter when you check the timing.

Eventually the reluctor wheel would have contacted the pickup hard enough to damage the pickup coil or shear a roll pin in the shaft. If you were lucky, the dizzy would fail and the engine would refuse to run.

That's exactly what I was talking about, and it was already contacting it as witnessed in the photo, even with the upper bearing in perfect shape.

I've had this issue in the past, to the point that the rotor button actually makes contact with the cap and knocks the rotor button out of phase. Before the rotor button was bumped, it had erratic timing and was impossible to set correctly. I don't believe timing here was rock steady with a distributor that looked that bad.

[Va68goat]

I'll call you grivera. After the news I got yesterday, I've been just trying to get my head straight.

[Va68goat]

Just to let you guys know...MSD stood by their product. They repaired the distributor at no charge and got it back to Paul already. I think thats awesome that they did that. I sent Paul a new distributor gear from Butlers. Hopefully I'll be enjoying this car soon!!!