I have a 98 Jeep Cherokee 4.o 6 cylinder automatic put my new distributor in and it does not line up with the holes did everything by the book and Marks just won't line up with the hole has anyone else had this problem

 

Yes. You need to take a flat head driver and turn the oil pump shaft back a little. It tends to turn when you pull the distributor out and wont line back up.

 

ive done that and it still wont line up its like its off a tooth ( cam and distributor gears)

 

You may be trying to install a 2.5 L distributor. The 2.5 L distributor drive gear helical splines on the drive gear are aligned differently on the shaft from the 4.0.


Install a 3/16" punch in the 4.0 alignment hole as shown -



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Then lay the distributor on its side as shown. Now you can see how the valley of the splines align with the roll pin. The 2.5 won't align in this manner.



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If the splines line up as shown, make sure you are installing the distributor with the 3/16" punch installed in the 4.0 alignment hole.



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Modified cap shown.

 

 

It's hard to tell from that angle.


Try taking a pic like this:


Note that this gear is aligned dead nuts. It doesn't take much misalignment to through it off.


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Looks like it's misaligned too me (see pic I marked up).


This wouldn't happen to be a Richporter RPT distributor would it? I bought one several years back off of Evilbay and had the same problem you're having. Sent it back and bought a '98 distributor off a buy that was parting out his Jeep, cleaned it up and used it.


Your pic marked up:



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when i worked with dists yrs ago you often had to take 2-3 shots at getting the gears right, start it, give a wiggle till it ran good and put a light on it when you had time.
why on earth are these things made so complex??