TheSamba.com :: View topic - stuck sticky distributor will hardly budge

Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:21 pm

Ive been fortunate that most every time I check my timing on the bus it's still sitting there perfectly at 28* of full advance (hose disconnected)

Today I was going to pull the distributor to get to the little screw on the bottom side of the cold start injector and realized that I can barely budge the thing at all even when completely loosened.

It took quite a bit of effort just to rotate it a quarter of the way around. Im just replacing my Fuel Injectors with a spare set I sent off to Cruzin Performance (amazing service btw) - and I had a spare cold start injector so I was going to swap in this nice clean one.

The only thing I can think of is that when Colin from IAC was here last year we did put a different seal around the body of the distributor because the old one was all cracked and showed some signs that it was leaking around the dist body. It wasn't a new seal, just the one that happened to be on my spare distributor at the time.

If my memory serves me, I don't recall any of the little timing adjustments made since then causing me issues with rotating it, but ive rarely needed to so maybe it's been like that for a while.

As insanely hard as it is to move around, I don't think ill be able to pull it out of there either without some serious leverage and then id probably kill the vacuum can in the process.

I hope im just having a bit of a brain fart from lack of sleep (little one has a nasty cold) - but what in the hell would cause it to be SO SO sticky?

Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:29 pm

My bet is on the seal jamming it up - i had this with a dizzy last year - couldn't yank it out for the life of me. it was a core engine so i found a lever with a short 90* leg on it and levered the @#$% out of there.

if you had 2 such levers you could pop it straight out. mine popped out without causing much damage i could see... but that's just my experience, on a core engine - i would be much more hesitant on a running engine

when it came out i could see the seal was unhappy.

Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:36 pm

A strap wrench and a rubber mallet.

The rubber o-ring can melt to the case and hold it in the case.

Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:09 pm

I take it the clamp is still in place. Any chance the clamp has not released its grip on the shaft? Maybe it needs to be coaxed a bit by spreading the gap with a screwdriver.

Sun Mar 04, 2012 4:44 pm

well, it'll turn with only one hand now, but its really tight still. I don't think ill mess with removing it just to swap out the cold start valve, at least until I have a better reason to go messing with it.

the bus wouldn't run for S*#T after I get everything hooked up and I naturally thought the distributor just needed to be adjusted to the right spot. working it back and forth to find the sweet spot wasn't doing it, but it did allow me to work it enough to loosen it up a little.

the problem ended up being that one of the newly cleaned injectors wasn't seated properly. im not exactly sure what happens when you do that, as it didn't seem like fuel was spraying elsewhere, or soaking the area, but once I re-fit the #3-4 injectors (it was #4) it fired up and I was able to set the timing to 28* max advance no problems.