I have Looked though similar posts and haven’t seen a resolution. I had an issue on my 98 TJ with a new Duralast Gold distributor yesterday. (Yes, I know this is for my TJ and not my Cherokee, but I tend to find more real answers on the Cherokee forum, the TJ one always just says take it to the dealership.) After following the factory service manual, I found that no matter which tooth a placed it on the tab ears just wouldn't line up. I finally just gave it a tried the closes to lining up. My scan tool said 10 degrees off sync. As I understand it, 0 degrees is perfect and -9 to +9 is considered " in sync”. After working on it most of the day, I figured that someone before me had not properly aligned the timing marks, so I figured I would have to spend most of tonight tearing it down to check the timing marks. This morning before leaving for work, I looked at the old distributor for ideas. I noted, here are 13 cogs and 14 grooves. 360 degrees divided by the 14 teeth that the Crank Shaft gear must have is 25.7ish degrees. Now with that in mind, the distributers drive gear has a roll pin where one side lines up center to a tooth and the other with the valley. So, if the gear was attacked 180 degrees out, “backwards”, it would be roughly 12.9 degrees from where it should be. So theoretically, if Duralast assembled it backwards, I should be able to flip it and instead of being 12.9 degrees off which would allow me to get to 2.9 degrees which is a lot closer to perfect and well within sync specs. Does anyone know if I am correct with this assumption?

 

Spinning the gear around would seem to be acceptable since they are slightly off..that looks like the old distributor. What does the new one look like as far as the roll pin and gear teeth lineup

 

I am not sure how the new one compaires exactly. It was still installed and I just grabed the old one on the way to work this moring so I could be working on ideas. I will snap some picture when I remove it the new distributor this afternoon.

 

Cut the tab ears off. Use an Allen wrench or whatever you want in the alignment holes. Drop it in and lock it down.

 

LMAO, that was my first thought. Then I realizedI it is an Advanced Auto part, so I better keep the warrenty intact so they can replace it every three months when it breaks again.

 

It worked it took it from -10 out of range to to +6 in range. Gonna tinker tune it now and see. Thanks