Schmitty

I am done buttoning up my 1990 3vze after a head gasket replacement. I was super excited as I was connecting up my vacuum hoses and getting close to tying her all together when I went to install the distributor and it wouldn't go full depth into the cam housing. I can not for the life of me figure out what is keeping it out about 3/8". I know some folks have told me that there might be an oil pump gear in the way, folks who don't know the 3vze all that well. So I looked down the hole and only saw the cam gear. I also measured my distributor up against a brand new one at a parts store and it appears identical. If anyone has any idea or experience with a SOB Distributor please let me know.

mrddk92

I just did mine and it went in fine. I wonder if there could be some debris on on of the gears. It seemd like it would hang up with like an inch to go until I turned it a little bit and got the gears lined up. Then it just pushed down easily.

tailhole

make sure the heads didnt get swaped. the end of the dis fits in a hole down in the head

Schmitty

Yeah, that's what I expected it to do- just slide right in with maybe a little bit of rotating. Unfortunately its not. I think I will get a long toothbrush and see if I can bring any debris off the gear in the cam housing. The weird thing is that I think the gear is fully engaged because when I push the distributor in as far as it wants to go and then turn the crank shaft a little back and forth, the rotor on the distributor turns with it. I even pull out the distributor very slowly while turning the crank and it stays engaged for what seems like its entire 1/4" depth!!! Unbelievable right? I'm going to go get a new distributor and see what happens. THANKS for the reply.

Schmitty

I'm pretty positive that the heads are on the correct sides. I can see the hole that the shaft of the distributor should go in. Now I'm really sweating this. Is there a way to confirm correct head location without getting tearing back into it?

TNRabbit

You have to make sure the #1 piston is TDC and the distributor rotor should be about 11 o'clock position...

Schmitty

1 is at TDC and my crank is zeroed out, both cam pulleys are at 12 o'clock so I think that's all good. These freaking distributors are pricey!

tc

1. Why are you replacing the distributor?

2. Does the old one go in all the way?

Schmitty

the old one refuses to go all the way in. When pushed in as far as it can go I can still see the top of the "o" ring and the is a gap between the cam housing and the distributor. I wanted to see if I could give it some "love" taps to coerce it into the hole and got it to seat all the way but the rod pushed up through the center of the distributor. So I tried to tap the rotor back down and it broke. So now I need a new distributor. I'm thinking now that the hole that the rod has to go into might be too snug

Schmitty

Got it in!! I got some calipers and measured the Distributor shaft and then measured inside diameter of hole and found that there .002 difference and that was way to snug of a fit. So I decided to drill out the hole, I thought twice but went ahead anyways. I have been pretty nervous thinking that I put the heads on reverse and that this side wasn't bored out originally to receive the distributor. I marked both heads with "sharpie" so I was pretty confident that I didn't mix them up but it was so uncanny how the distributor wasn't fitting. SO I drilled and made a nice little duct tape cone trap to capture shavings that retro'd perfectly and left not one sliver. I started drilling and Badabing!! it popped right through the tiniest little gnurled lip and the rest of the hole was fine. So I pulled the junk out, stuck the Dis in and vola! So now it's crunch time. Does she start up and purrrr?