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Distributor seized while driving - 86 Eagle

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macdude443 View Drop Down
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    Posted: Feb/08/2016 at 9:43am
Here's one I haven't seen before.  I may have caused it myself but I'm not sure.  I was driving on the highway Saturday when I heard a muffled clunk and the engine shut off.  I pulled over and when trying to restart I got a slight backfire through the carb, so I took a look at the distributor.  I noticed it had been spun around to a very retarded position and was moving freely.  The base was cracked near the clamp.  A friend came with a wrench and I removed it to find it missing 3 teeth and frozen solid.  We used a magnet to fish out any metal from the top of the oil pump.  Had to have it towed home where I had a spare distributor.  I had my buddy rotate the engine while I looked closely at the cam gear for damage.  Couldn't see any, but it is dark down there even with a flashlight.  Turned the oil pump in both directions a bit by hand.  Didn't notice any sticking or binding.  I found TDC and installed the spare dist.  I drained the oil into my pan, which I covered with a t-shirt for filtering.  Nothing big turned up in the homemade filter even after I dumped the oil filter contents into it.  I ran a strong, telescoping magnet along the bottom of the pan and caught nothing.  Could the bigger bits have disintegrated?  Put in a strong, magnetic drain plug for the heck of it.  Refilled with oil and it fired right up and ran normally with no odd noises.  Drove it around a little and nothing odd.  I will pull the dist in the next few days (snow this week)   and inspect it for gear wear.  The correct thing to do would be to pull the pan and clean/inspect, however I just had a shop pull the pan and do the RMS and a new Melling oil pump.  They said they wouldn't do it again based on the amount of work and I do not have a warm and dry place to do it myself here in snowy PA.  I have a motor waiting to be rebuilt as a spare this spring/summer so I'm hoping it lasts until then.

From what I see, the upper bushing dried up and locked.  This is an OEM Motorcraft Duraspark unit.  I try to follow maintenance routinely and have never seen any mention of lubricating that bushing.  It was installed with a fresh gasket so I don't think it bound up to the oil pump with clearance issues.  Even if it did that would cause an oil pump failure I would think.

I may have botched it myself.  Over a year ago when I put it in there was some caked on gunk under the cap beneath the advance plates.  I turned the dist upside-down and cleaned it out with a liberal application of brake cleaner.  I'm thinking this may have displaced the lubricant in the upper bushing and eventually led to its failure.  Is that an oilite bushing?

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Edited by macdude443 - Feb/08/2016 at 9:47am
1982 Eagle SX/4
1986 Eagle Wagon
1985 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
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farna View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote farna Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/09/2016 at 6:27am
I'd say you washed the lube out and the bearings eventually seized too. Did you install a high volume oil pump or a stock one? The HV pump adds some stress on the dizzy shaft and gear and could contribute to such a failure. Some of those pumps don't have a deep enough slot for the dizzy, so the dizzy binds the pump a a bit. I've only head of that on the HV pump, not the stock replacements. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote macdude443 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/09/2016 at 8:40am
I researched the HV version and decided based on the failures and lack of necessity to go with the stock pump.  I used a Melling M81A.  I checked after installation and still had good vertical shaft clearance on the replacement.  I probably would have done that when I put the other one in too.  I think the brake cleaner was the cause.  It's not common at all for these to seize like this from what I've found.

I pulled the replacement yesterday and the gear looks fine, so the cam gear may not be damaged.  I disassembled it and lubricated both bearings with engine oil and put it back in the car.
1982 Eagle SX/4
1986 Eagle Wagon
1985 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote farna Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/10/2016 at 5:56am
You should be fine -- the dizzy gear is a softer material than the cam so in an event such as yours the cam gear shouldn't be damaged. Good thing!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote macdude443 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/11/2016 at 12:39pm
Originally posted by farna farna wrote:

You should be fine -- the dizzy gear is a softer material than the cam so in an event such as yours the cam gear shouldn't be damaged. Good thing!


I'll say!
1982 Eagle SX/4
1986 Eagle Wagon
1985 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tomj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/20/2016 at 7:45pm
... and metal parts tend to sink to the bottom of the pan and not circulate around, assuming they didn't get caught on the way down...

the TSM doesn't have a "NOW THAT YOUR CAR IS 40 YEARS OLD..." section, but if it did, it would tell you (lol) that you might fully disassemble a distributor every 20 years, run a gun/rifle brush through the bore, clean out the spiral grooves, clean the felts, and oil it with good lube. cuz that's what they all need!

the ones i've pulled, held in my hand and spun, wouldn't... they'd rotate certainly. but after a full cleaning and oiling, one twist of the fingers and it will spin a half dozen times, freely.

the friction probably heats everything up, and causes it to freeze, and twist the distro. i had one happen too, luckily at low speed, it rotated 45 degrees, killed the spark etc and stalled.

quite the surprise when you look under the hood, huh?!! lol, this is one of those things not in the TSM like re-torquing rear axle nuts every 20 years! been there done that too!
1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote macdude443 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/22/2016 at 9:58am
I hear ya.  Both Eagles had their distributors pulled, cleaned and fully lubed up after this experience.  This distributor was also twisted about 45-50* from where it was set.
1982 Eagle SX/4
1986 Eagle Wagon
1985 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
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