HappyTrails

What are the symptoms of being off one tooth advanced or one tooth retarded on the distributor index?

1976Mustang

Engine will stumble on idle, misfire or stall if it's really far off.

HappyTrails

Would that be advance, retard, or either?

CCKen

Why are you asking this? Did you have the distributor out then reinstall it.


See if the hold down clamp bolt is there, or loose.

HappyTrails

Situation:

Oil was splashing out the two drain holes in the distributor case. Getting all over everything.

Checked for crank case pressure. Not the issue. PCV valve and line are clear, clean and functioning. Actually not very old either.

Fresh air hose from Air box to valve cover shows no sign of wrong way vapors. No oil in the air box or hose.

Distributor camp was properly tight. Distributor was sealed to block with Honda bond sealant. So no leak there. Actually it took a bit of a yank to free that bond.

On inspection of distributor in hand there was a lot of oil inside. One would think this would come from crank case pressure, but there are no other signs of that. So I am figuring it came from splash up from the crank case since the shaft seemed quite worn in the housing.

I took off the plastic hall effect piece and removed the shaft, cleaned everything up and inserted an o-ring into the housing between the upper and lower bushings. Then shoved the shaft back in and reassembled.

Result:

When cleaning the distributor I obliterated the index marks I made, which were accurate to the position prior to removal. So on installation I followed detailed and accurate indexing instructions using compression position TDC as the starting place.

All worked perfectly. In fact, the engine seems to idle slightly better than before. I have not run a couple of tanks of gas to check consumption yet.

Could it have been previously indexed off a tooth and I never really knew it? And the computer making up for most of the timing error?

Also, I drove 200 miles today and no oil coming out.

As a side note, I am trying to decide which way to go on a replacement distributor. I bought a Richporter as I was talking about doing. Their website claims they assemble in USA with all American made parts. BS. The box say Hecho en China.

Looking as this unit carefully, it is a cheap piece of junk. I will take it back and look at other solutions. Maybe dig up a couple of later Mopar units at the JY and cobble up a good one myself.

This will be the 4th distributor in that motor. Problem has been worn shafts and low quality rebuilds with worn shafts.

Thanks for your interest, CCKen

Jeep Driver

No, will not run if one tooth off.


You say it all 'worked perfectly', if it's perfect NOW, leave it be.

HappyTrails

Of course. I was just wondering why it is a bit smoother than before.

cruiser54

http://www.angelfire.com/my/fan/dist_index.html

HappyTrails

Already followed this info. Thanks

But here is what I noticed:

Prior to all of the distributor work, engine would idle at about 900 rpm (indicated) with a slight bit of roughness, passed off as the over-lean characteristic of the 4.0L emissions requirement. After this work on the distributor it idles perfectly smooth at about 750 rpm indicated. I'm all for it, but I was just wondering what I did "right" that I had not done before.