196 Issues

first, a TACTICAL test, and questions to ask...

PULL THE DISTRIBUTOR OUT OF THEN ENGINE. Since it's already rotaed 120, just yank it. To later re-install, you will need to index it to #1 cyl. YOu do this with the phinger-phart method, same as finding #1 TDC, which is what the distributor need to install. But that's second...

* is the gear good? Missing teeth? Clean and oily? Various conditions mean various things, report back...

* Turn the gear at the bottom. Does the shaft turn smoothly and easily? (Of course the contact points make it go bump bump bump.. so loosen or remove the points). I bet not. You should be able to spin it with two fingers, and have it run on itself for a turn or two or three. If it's dragging, high resistance to turning by hand, then it's simply old and gunked up and binding, and if binding enough, the shaft, rotated by the camshaft, will turn the distributor, throw spark timing CRAZY, and hopfuly stall without too much damage.

after 40, 50, 60 years, the oil coked up, plugged the spiral that draws oi up the shaft, and it freezes up. Distributors need to be turn down, shaft removed, gun-brushed with solvent, cleaned and relubricated. It's an easy afternoon job.

* The helical gear on the camshaft that drives the distributor also drives the oil pump.

Further observations on the camshaft gear damage... if part of a tooth is broken off by some Bad Event, and you remove and replace/repair the device that stalled and broke the tooth off, you can probably not freak out, reassemble, and run this engine for the rest of it's working life. I've personally done this; through my own foolishness (modifying oil pumps) I caused an oil pump to freeze, strip a tooth, zero oil pressure, etc. Engine turned off quick enough to do no harm. Broken tooth on the oil pump. Towed home, I replaced the oil pump, drove that engine for years more. Upon teardown found matching break on the camshaft gear. The following rebuild required replacing the camshaft, but it did no further harm or unusual wear tot he remaining teeth or components. With luck, you might be as lucky. So don't throw the engine away yet.

* If your distrib seized, timing went nuts, stallled the engine then chipped a tooth, replace the gear, or distributor (dont just stick another old one in there!!!!) and move on.

second, STRATEGIC questions to ask before you start... though that is now some time ago...

What's the history of this engine? When was it last torn down? If it's original to the car, never touched, yeah, it's gonna fail. If it's FIFTY YEARS OLD it simply needs to be torn down and freshened. I don't mean to be a party pooper, or all negative, but it is simply unreasonable to expect an antique ngine that's sat for long periods to run without serious interventions first. And you MUST MUST MUST check cylinder head torque etc.

Yeah, I know people will retort with success stories of bumpstarting barn finds with success, but it's unusual luck. And totally dependent on prior condition (usually UNKNOWN). And the 199/232/258 is a totally different motor than the 195.6 OHV, which is based upon a 1940's engine, designed before the interstates were built, and the 1958 addition of the OHV head was a quick-fix, stop-gap hop-up to an ailing motor. It's NOT an engine amenable to certain kinds of abuse (I can back this up with measurements: oiling and cooling and oil-cooling).

So what's the full story on this engine and car?

Unfortunately, I looked at the cam and it seems to be chipped as well. I have some pictures of the original distributor I pulled out, and the new one that chipped. The shaft on the original distributor spins freely, but the new distributor is totally locked up, I can't turn it at all.

Here's the new distributor that broke off teeth:

The one above is the original distributor, the teeth on it look fine.

This was an unknown 'barn find' engine, I replaced head gasket, rings, pistons, and rod bearings, and had a valve job done. Re torqued head as well. It was running ok, not great. It ran pretty well right after I replaced the distributor, but then this happened.

Odd that teeth stripped in two places, but probably means a gap in the teeth on the cam. Yeah, bad news. Sorry to hear.

The 195.6 is an antique engine. If you go only by casual experience in these forum pages over the last few years, even, most re-run 195.6's don't end well. The OHVs are prone to many failures that the flathead isn't. 

My personal experience with common low-cost rebuilding of them has not been good. Practices that are "good enough" for the 232/258 or other modern-ish engines are not adequate for this engine. Block and head mating surfaces need extra care, mixed flathead and OHV springs, sloppy crank clearances, ... and every single accessory needs to be gone through one by one and very closely. Gun-brush every bore, wear in things no one ever checks. It's hard to find good rings.

They are all simply very old. They were old in the 1970's! I remember them as 80,000 mile engines.