MSD distributor woes

[bbeckwith]

Seems I owe the folks at MSD an apology, I thought the shaft on my MSD distributor was too short for my 69 340 small block. Seems my Accel dual point distributor will fit in the slot on the gear it's driven off of, but the MSD wont.

I discovered the gear and the intermediate shaft that runs the oil pump had an excessive amount of play in it so I pulled the shaft out and found there was never any shaft bushing installed in the block. This let the gear ride down to the point that only 1/3 of it actually meshed with the cam gear. If I only knew this earlier. I hope it hasnt trashed the cam gear. I can only assume this was overlooked by whoever rebuilt the motor last time.

The old Accel dual point engages the slot, but the newer MSD doesnt, nor does my NEW, MP distributor. The MSD and the MP piece both have shafts that taper down to the size of the slot, whereas the Accel and a stocker that I have both have straight shafts. For some reason, the stocker and Accel both fit, but the others just refuse to slide into the slot.

I believe because there was no bushing there, the gear rode too low on the cam gear and the distributors just cant engage the slot, but I'm at a loss as to why, since the Accel and the stocker do. Something about the design differences of the shafts between the Accel and the MSD and the MP distributors. The MSD was between 1/16" - 1/8" shorter than the Accel, but in my opinion, that was not the problem here. It must be the lack of the bushing.

I am humbled, and offer my apologies to MSD. My bad!

[rumblefish360]

LOL Ooooops.
Well, at least your man enuff to stand up and say you were wrong and apollogize.
Now that you have 2 distribs, is that MP unit the adjustable advance unit? Have you tried to adjust it yourself?
If you can adjust the vaccum advance with an allen wrench,
I would be interested in taking it off your hands since I never made the move to get mine.

[bbeckwith]

Hi Rumblefish,

I'm gonna keep the MP distributor since I already sent the MSD back. I did get the performance distributor on the first try. I was worried, but it came with the allen screws for adjusting the mechanical advance, the metal collar on the shaft instead of plastic, and the vacuum advance is stamped AH13. I havent tried to insert an allen wrench in the snout of the vacuum advance unit yet, but will eventually. Probably after I get intermediate shaft bushing situation resolved. I'm in the middle of pulling the motor out now. I just have to remove the starter and the motor is ready to be hoisted out. Assuming I dont find anything else trashed, I will just replace my leaking rear oil seal and the bushing, then repaint the block, turn the flywheel, install new clutch, throwout bearing, and back in she goes. That is if I can control myself and not repaint every square inch of the engine compartment again, but who knows, maybe I'll get inspired.

Bruce

[rumblefish360]

LOL, I know what you mean. Good luck with it.