Does the oil pump drive shaft with gear just drop into place? What keeps it there?
Question about small block oil pump drive shaft / distributor drive gear
- Thread starter MoPar~Man
- Start date
The distributor on the topside. It should be clocked properly. TDC on the balancer and the distributor rotor should point toward the LF. Clock That Distributor !
What holds the distributor drive shaft down?
Read post 2. The distributor is bolted to the block. It is attached to the intermediate shaft which is in the block driving the oil pump.
The distributor housing is bolted to the block. What keeps the shaft from rising up?
Yes.
It isin't this that is holding the 2 shafts in place?
No, that just holds the distributor shaft in place. Halifaxhops has new collars. It looks like you need one.
Doesn't the distributor shaft ride on top of the oil pump shaft and drive gear?
Remember, I asked if the oil pump shaft and drive gear just drops down into place, and the answer was yes. So if it drops down so easily, it can pop up easily.
Does nobody understand what I'm getting at?
Any play in that drive gear and the shafts will show up as sloppy ignition timing.
Actually I do.
The distributor doesn't keep it in place. The plastic collar you've shown just keeps the end play of the distributor shaft to a minimum.
What keeps it in place is the helical gear on the shaft mating to the gear on the camshaft. You can research from there... Search right angle helical gears etc.
I had an idle thought. Where does the variability in spark timing come from? (besides the timing chain).
I searched around. I found some video's (see below). There can be play between the helical gears even when they're fully seated. The oil pump drive shaft itself can rise and fall slightly - it's not preloaded as far as I can tell. There can be slop where the distributor shaft notch meets the slot in the gear.
That got me wondering about building up the distributor shaft a little to make it a tighter fit, changing the collar to reduce the up and down play in the distributor shaft.
Some forum talk about this, and the video's. One is just for a modified shaft bushing - with extra curved grooves to pump oil into the bushing. I was wondering how the bushing is oiled - I guess it's just oil from the lifter valley that runs into the bushing, no dedicated port or passage?
shimming a distributor gear to get proper clearances
Distributor shaft end play - Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk
I searched around. I found some video's (see below). There can be play between the helical gears even when they're fully seated. The oil pump drive shaft itself can rise and fall slightly - it's not preloaded as far as I can tell. There can be slop where the distributor shaft notch meets the slot in the gear.
That got me wondering about building up the distributor shaft a little to make it a tighter fit, changing the collar to reduce the up and down play in the distributor shaft.
Some forum talk about this, and the video's. One is just for a modified shaft bushing - with extra curved grooves to pump oil into the bushing. I was wondering how the bushing is oiled - I guess it's just oil from the lifter valley that runs into the bushing, no dedicated port or passage?
shimming a distributor gear to get proper clearances
Distributor shaft end play - Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk
Not a clue what you are talking about. The intermediate shaft drives the oil pump through a hex on the bottom of the shaft. It is driven off the cam gear. The tang on the distributor keys into a slot on the top of the intermediate shaft gear and the distributor is held into the block with a hold down bracket on the rear china wall. They were designed to work in unison. Millions of engines and decades without an issue. Don't over think it.
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