This is no joke. Several posts lately showed up here regarding damaged dist drive gears and other problems such as trashed dist shaft washer and oil leaking from around the distributor.

Here is something to check. The distributor is to be held down firm and straight by a fork that presses the flange evenly onto the engine block boss. It is not to be held down by the index slot in the flange. Here are some pics of what I mean:

Proper fork is similar to this example.




Here is a pic of the dist showing the index slot in the flange:



If the distributor is secured to the engine block boss only by bolting through that slot without the fork, it can be cocked to that side on account of the gasket or other misalignment issues between the distributor and the engine block. Gear misalignment/wear, rotating shaft misalignment, washer wear, and oil leaks can possibly result.

I have found these distributors to be of varying quality and precision, especially since most of what is available comes from Malaysian remanufacturers starting with a lot of worn out stuff.

The fork goes over the flange and secures with a bolt through the index hole. The tab on the back of the fork holds it off the flange except for the tips of the fork pressing down on the flange evenly at 180 degrees apart assuring the best alignment possible.

Check out your distributor for this. I am curious how many non-forked ones show up. I have run across a few in the junk yards. I think as time goes on mechanics don't get all the parts back in when working on the vehicle. The fork gets left out.

 

 

Here are some more pics

 

Just to add a little more to this,,The 2000 and 2001 have the fork for the cam position sensor also.

 

Is that fork from a 258?

 

IDK. I found it lodged behind the coil bracket or somewhere down there a while back while cleaning the engine. I was not the one in use.

 

My 93' has no hold down "fork" only a bolt that holds the dizzy ear down. My issue was after close inspection the block isn't flat there...the dizzy sits a 1/8th inch higher and once the bolt is tight it puts tension on the retaining ear and causes shear or stress cracks in the cheap metal of the dizzy ear and eventually break or cause the dizzy to not seat correctly. I made a better dizzy gasket and used a spacer under the mount bolt and ear to make them flush. Worked for many years now.
Good luck~

 

So...if you come to a fork in the road...
It might be a good idea to pick it up and install it on the dizzy next time you are working it! Until then the spacer method seems good to keep you going!

 

Good one
When I went through this crap I couldn't get any straight answers as to why or if my XJ originally had one... did they originally all come with one and some POS didn't replace it or ...
Either way if myself or another XJ'er needs one let's list the options as well as more pictures please. I'd rather do it right or not at all.