Distributor gasket replacement

[coolwind57]

What all is involved in replacing my distributor gasket?  Side of my engine block is still oily after I rebuilt my oil filter adapter.  Seems like a cheap repair, so I thought I'd try it next. 

 

It's not a bad leak, but its not dry, which bothers me.

 

I've not done this before.  Whats my steps and how badly can I screw this up?

 

 

[Dando]

Just marker the distributor for alignment when putting the distributor back in and it’s a pretty straight forward job. Just important to get the distributor back and and indexed properly when reinstalling. It’s easier than it sounds.

[coolwind57]

26 minutes ago, Dando said:

Just marker the distributor for alignment when putting the distributor back in and it’s a pretty straight forward job. Just important to get the distributor back and and indexed properly when reinstalling. It’s easier than it sounds.

Sounds good, thanks.  So to clarify:  pop the plug wires off, mark orientation of block and distro base, maybe remove a bolt and cup washer from the block (if these engines are like most older setups), and pull distro straight out, right?  

[Swampy]

keeping an eye on this because I have to do the same thing to my 2.5l

[Dando]

2 hours ago, coolwind57 said:

Sounds good, thanks.  So to clarify:  pop the plug wires off, mark orientation of block and distro base, maybe remove a bolt and cup washer from the block (if these engines are like most older setups), and pull distro straight out, right?  

 

With mine I’ve always, removed the whole cap, marked the rotor relative to the distributor housing, marked the distributor body relative to the block, then there is one bolt that holds down the distributor locating tab, remove it and lift distributor out. 

[Minuit]

The only trick to this is just making sure you put everything back together the way it was. I agree with Dando - just take the cap off of the distributor rather than taking the wires off. Then just lift the distributor off, replace the little paper gasket (get a couple, they're dirt cheap and easy to lose or mess up) and replace the distributor in the same orientation it was in. That takes a little fiddling, but not too bad. Just make sure you kept track of where it was pointing before you take it off.

[DesertRat1991]

I always start by putting a socket in the end of the cranksh

[cruiser54]

Use an o-ring instead. See the link below to do it all properly.

 

http://cruiser54.com/?p=68

[DesertRat1991]

16 hours ago, DesertRat1991 said:

I always start by putting a socket in the end of the cranksh

 

How weird, only a fragment of my post got uploaded.

 

That was supposed to be a post about rotating the crank to TDC, and marking the rotor position, before pulling out the distibutor.  There is no need to mark the dist position relative to the block since the locator tab ensures it only bolts down one way.