zachb55

Ok so i just rebuilt my engine, had the manual by my side the whole way (along with yotatech of course). Started the engine today and it ran pretty decently for about a minute. then a screeching halt, my heart sunk... I went to turn the key over to make sure it still turned, it did. so after making sure my cam timing was still on, no water on the plugs, i checked my dizzy and noticed that turning of engine did not equal rotation of distributor rotor, my heart sunk again... So i thought ok, i sheared my distributor gear, ill just pull it out. The distributor would not come out, pounded on the damn thing, even broke it probably, the shaft is absolutely jammed in there. Now i am all the way down to just the housing that the distributor sits in, no bolts left in it (i checked a bunch) and the camshaft is completely free. i can move everything a little bit but the distributor shaft is still holding the whole assembly together somehow.

Does anyone have any advice for me on this, it's my first time doing a lot of work on a 3VZ and just looking to see what you guys think. I'm pondering if i can disassemble the dizzy from the top down so i can get down to just the shaft then possibly get the housing which it goes into off of there, then see what exactly happened. Throw me a bone here guys, tell me what im doing wrong. Somebody hates me, Why would the dizzy drive gear shear from the cam?

this was supposed to take me back to college, 250 miles back to bellingham, and im stuck here and classes start next week = screwed.

Elvota

Really sorry to hear about your troubles. Nothign worse then doing everything right and have things still go so wrong.

My guess... and this is only a guess... is that you've bent the shaft and maybe broken some teeth. Hopefully the cam is all right. I can't think what else you could do but what your have done already.

I wonder if you can grab the shaft with vise grips and try and turn it slightly left and right as you pull. If you are still trying to save the dizzy at this point then that might not be the best idea.

What if you turn the crankshaft slightly clockwise while pulling on the dizzy? That would take two people, but perhaps the cam would turn enough just to free things up.

To be honest, you are going to most likely want to tear down the motor to the point you can inspect the cam shaft for damage and make sure there are no dizzy parts floating around in there. Maybe when you start tearing things down that will allow you to free the distributor.

Just throwing out some ideas.

toytech76

I've repaired many 3vz motors that had this problem. The shaft bearing freezes and the cam gear that the dist gear rides on either destroys the dist gear or it spins the gear up the dist shaft. Either way you need a new/used dist and possibly a cam. Inspect the cam gear very carefully for damaged teeth and check the hole in the head that the dist shaft rides in.

toytech76

there are no rebuil kits for the dist's either. Do it right and get another making sure you take care of ALL damaged parts

zachb55

bloody hell, toytech was exactly right, the tip of the dizzy shaft either froze or got a piece of junk stuff in it and ground itself to a halt, the gear pushed itself up and thats why the cam still moved freely and the dizzy wasnt effected. well thanks for the help guys, off to the salvage yard to tear another one of these apart tomorrow. maybe ill find some other goodies while im there... T-minus 3 days till classes start. by the way yes i tore it all the way down and i am still wondering if the bearing hole can be salvaged by cleaning it up with a drill bit the exact same size as the dizzy shaft, what do you think of that?

toytech76

I wouldnt use a drill bit. Take some fine sandpaper or valve grinding compound to smooth it out. Use the old dist shaft to help clean it out

toytech76

when you put the new dist in fill that hole with lube so it has plenty on first startup

zachb55

k ill try the paper, yeah definitely learned to use extra lube the hard way (though i poured it over the cam before putting the covers on and figure some had to get in there, i guess not enough though... thanks again.

toytech76

NP! Lemme know if you need anymore help