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Distributor Gear - stripped? |
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capitol76
AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/02/2010 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 204 |
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Posted: Jul/09/2011 at 3:10pm |
Been driving 69 AMX for a couple of months with a 1978 Long block 360 recently installed. I took the old distributor out of the 390 and put it in. All has been pretty fine, i.e. it has been fast and starts well and runs smoothly UNTIL I downshifted on the way home from 4th to 3rd at about 45 mph. The car backfired a bit then died. After towing the car home, I found I had spark and fuel so I put #1 at tdc and pulled the distributor cap. The rotor was not anywhere near #1. I pulled the distributor and the gear is very rough and worn down on several of the teeth (see picture).
Was putting the 390 distributor into the 360 an error or is something else going on? This is a 42 year old point distributor. I don't mind having a point distributor. I'd appreciate any comments. |
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poormansMACHINE
AMC Addicted Charter Member Joined: Jun/28/2007 Location: Shoemaker-Levy9 Status: Offline Points: 12302 |
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Do some searching here on distributor gears and you'll see how you screwed yourself.
It's been talked about over and over. |
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SC397
AMC Addicted Joined: Apr/30/2009 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 5476 |
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Yea, you probably should have switched the gear from the '78 dizzy over to the '69 dizzy. Also when you swap them like that be sure to coat the gear with petroleum jelly. Now, all of that gear material is ground up and has gone through the engine as a oil slurry. Not good. I would be tearing the engine completely apart and cleaning everything. I had one like that and I had to replace all the bearings and get the block honed again.
What does the '78 distributor gear look like? Edited by SC397 - Jul/09/2011 at 9:20pm |
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mstrcrftr
Supporter of TheAMCForum Joined: Jul/12/2010 Location: houston Status: Offline Points: 2066 |
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this is what i did to allieviate the problem of stripped gears
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poormansMACHINE
AMC Addicted Charter Member Joined: Jun/28/2007 Location: Shoemaker-Levy9 Status: Offline Points: 12302 |
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How did all the engines run millions of accumulated miles without a crutch and not wreck a gear?
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RB401
AMC Apprentice Joined: Jul/08/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 232 |
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I've run mismatched factory gears for years with no problems. My guess is when you put the '69 distributor in the '78 360, the distributor sat either to low or to high in the hole and thus the gears did not fully engage.
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'73 Javelin AMX, 401, T5
T5 Swap Page: http://mysite.verizon.net/amxjavelin/t5swap/t5swap.html |
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74Bubblefender
AMC Addicted Charter Member Joined: Jun/29/2007 Location: The AMC form Status: Offline Points: 2589 |
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Looks at the gap between the washer and the end of the distributor. Even used gears need to find a pattern but you hit the crap lottery with that distributor. The gear gets pushed up and tries to wear into a good pattern and because it was in a slightly different spot it wore through. Very common though.
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We are just about to forge new AMC V8 crankshafts.. please check here
http://www.bulltear.com/forums/showthread.php?19564 |
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billd
Moderator Group Forum Administrator Joined: Jun/27/2007 Location: Iowa Status: Offline Points: 30894 |
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no crutch is needed - unless you otherwise do or did something wrong. Any extra oiling line is covering mistakes elsewhere.
And yeah, for the OP - do a search, there's literally many many dozens of posts and several threads on distributor gear issues and the CAUSES of same........... In fact, there was one within the last couple of months that looked just like that so you can refer to it for ideas, causes and solutions. |
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carnuck
AMC Addicted Joined: Mar/31/2010 Location: Seattle Status: Offline Points: 3942 |
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Sometimes it's cam walk that causes the gear breakdown too. A cam retainer with correct gearset during rebuild is not a lot of extra money for peace of mind.
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billd
Moderator Group Forum Administrator Joined: Jun/27/2007 Location: Iowa Status: Offline Points: 30894 |
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There won't be any cam walk with a stock system - flat-tappet hydraulics. |
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