Distributor gear installation

[Odin]

I got my 318 back from the shop and I’ve been making may way through assembly with many hurdles. I’ve overcome all of them so far with help and advice from friends.

I installed the distributor gear immediately after installing the timing gears and chain. I lined up the groove in the distributor gear and it was pointing at the front intake bolt hole at the #1 cylinder like it says in the service manual and in the posts I found on here. I turned the engine over to install the windage tray, oil pump, pickup tube, and oil pan.

The distributor gear fell out when I rotated the engine upside down on the stand. It startled me but then I realized “well I guess I should have expected that.”

Several days went by but today I rotated the engine upright and mocked up a few things for figment. Then I installed the lifters, push rods and rocker arm assemblies. When it was time to install the distributor gear again, I found TDC on the compression stroke and dropped it in. But now it will only line up with the #5 cylinder or 90 degrees perpendicular to that! WTH?

I tried moving it one or two teeth but it will only drop in the same way each time.

Could the position of the oil pump drive be what’s keeping it from being able to line up the way I want it? Or should I be looking at something else?

 

[mopar head]

I believe if you put your cam dot @ 12 with # 1 compression stroke it should be back to normal.

 

[67Dart273]

No, the dist gear goes 1/2 turn when it's on no1 compression, and when it's on no6 instead. The trouble might be your distributor. It turns out that not all distributors have the tang aligned with the rotor in the same way. The fact is, it simply does not matter. You can dump the gear in any old way, dump the dist right in after it, and then bring no1 up on compression (Stick your finger in the hole, feel for compression) Then stuff the no 1 wire in wherever the rotor points and it will run just fine if the dist tang is "one of those," you can diddle the gear if you must. I never bother.

 

[halifaxhops]

Just FYI Only RB dual points are clocked differently. Sounds like it can be the shaft does not want to drop into the oil pump, might have to rotate that a bit also.

 

[mbaird]

You need one of these to prime the engine before start up. And you can rotate the pump drive to clock it to the dizzy . Although like Del said it doesn’t really matter where #1 is pointing as long as you remember or mark that terminal #1.
Don’t forget to rotate the engine as you prime it so oil will get to the top end !

 

[Odin]

You need one of these to prime the engine before start up. And you can rotate the pump drive to clock it to the dizzy . Although like Del said it doesn’t really matter where #1 is pointing as long as you remember or mark that terminal #1.
Don’t forget to rotate the engine as you prime it so oil will get to the top end !

View attachment 1716313066

That's funny you posted this. I ordered one last night thinking i just need to rotate the pump a little to get it where I want it. I need it for priming anyway so i guess it was good to order it now. Thanks.

 

[Odin]

Problem solved. It was the position of the oil pump causing the alignment issue. I was able to rotate the oil pump a little then tried inserting the distributor gear/shaft again and was able to align it with the front intake bolt at the #1 cylinder.

Thanks for all the info about how I can make #1 wherever I want it as long as I line up the distributor and everything with wherever #1 ended up