ehudpower

Has anybody heard that the distrubtor or something inside the engine where u put the distrubtor in could cause the fuel pump to stop working?

4Doors

The end of the distributor goes into a slot in the OIL pump... was that maybe what you were referring to?

ehudpower

not sure my friend told me there was a way it could turn off the fuel pump but he could of meant the oil pump, thats why i am asking.

mike albo

yep, the only thing the distributor would cause not to work would be the oil pump

ehudpower

but if the oil pump dosent work could that cause the engine not to start?

mike albo

no

mike albo

did you pull the distibutor out?

ehudpower

i put a brand new one in and it worked that day and now it wont start!!

4Doors

No, but if your distributor is not properly indexed then it will either not run or not run well. I just replaced mine last week and it took a few tries to get the teeth lined up properly. First try it ran but not well and was missing and knocking. Second try it would not even fire, so I suppose someone might be inclined to believe the fuel pump was not working? People say the distributor on the 4.0 has nothing to do with timing, that the timing is controlled only by the computer. This is technically true, but you must still have it indexed properly (dist. gear and cam gear in synch) or you will have problems.

Are you having a problem with yours or are you just trying to understand what your friend was telling you?

mike albo

so your gatting spark but no fuel? need more details

4Doors

You posted this while I was typing my last response, so disregard my question about having trouble because you obviously are. It's not super hard to get it lined up properly, just takes a few tries.

Make sure your #1 cylinder is at TDC by rotating the timing mark on the crank pulley to 0* on the timing cover.
Then you've got to align the rotor on the dist so that when you insert it into the hole, the rotor moves to just past the #1 plug pin.

I've got a couple pictures I snapped when I did this last week, I'll try to get them posted for you.

mike albo

4Doors is correct,when I did mine it took 3 times pulling it and putting it back in to get it right,it ran the first time but really crappy,then it wouldn't even start.

ehudpower

i had 3 people try it more then 10 times each to get mine lined up and one is a mechanic and there saying my timeing chain skipped gears!!

4Doors

How many miles do you have? If this is on your '89 I wonder if your chain might have stretched a bit so that TDC isn't quite at 0* anymore. Did you line it up at 0* When you got the distributor bolted in, where was the rotor pointing to? Roughly 5 o'clock? Was it right at the #1 pin? Before it? After it?

ehudpower

i dont know some of the terms you just used but basically what is happening is that it cant get right one where it needs to be time and it is my 89. They are thinking it did bec it might still be the single chain one, but were takeing that one out and putting in a double vrand new one