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sanchius 
Samba Member
Joined: May 03, 2007
Posts: 1456
Location: IN
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 Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 7:34 am Post subject: Guide: Procedure to safely re-orient your distributor |
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How to safely re-orient your distributor without losing the two bottom washers down into your enginer.
When I reassembled my 2.1L WBX, I wasn't happy with the orientation of the distributor, so I searched how to correct it. Clearly I wasn't the only person to experience this: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?searc..._chars=200
The process is to remove the distributor, raise up the distributor drive pinion ( #8 ), and rotate the DDP to the correct orientation. Simplicity itself.
The huge challenge is to not displace the two unsecured washers (10) at the base of the DDP. The two washers are a tight enough fit to the DDP base that they can easily come up with the DDP and get knocked off by the DDGear (6), where they will fall, potentially irretrievably, down somewhere inside your engine. If that happens, you now have to find two new specialty washers and somehow position them way down in the engine at the bottom of the distributor gear stack. Ugh, this feels risky, maybe I should just leave things be.
Fortunately I had a spare WBX case, a DDP, and 2 washers to experiment with and I worked out the following procedure to secure the two washers while reorienting the DDP.
I used a thin stiff wire through the blanked off hole next to the distributor, angled back to front, marked at 5 & 1/16 inches, to firmly hold down the washers while I extracted and reoriented the DDP.
I first tried lifting the DDP with a magnet, but the magnet simply wasn't strong enough. So I used the stout pair of reverse grip pliers, which I had picked up to remove the strong crank gear securing ring (7), to grab the top of the DDP.
After practicing the procedure a couple times on the spare case, I nervously did it for real on my actual engine and it worked like a charm.
search keywords: Distributor off degrees washers
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Last edited by sanchius on Sat Jul 31, 2021 7:38 am; edited 1 time in total |
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djkeev
Samba Moderator
Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32634
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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sanchius
Samba Member
Joined: May 03, 2007
Posts: 1456
Location: IN
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| Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 7:42 am Post subject: Re: Reorient distributor safely |
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| djkeev wrote: |
| What bend if any did you put on the wire end that held down the washers? |
None, the picture with the measuring tape shows the final tool.
It looks off in the picture because I ran out of hands to hold the wire precisely in place while I held the light and the phone to take the picture.
The washers are pretty snugly contained horizontally in the engine case casting, you simply have to keep them from raising up with the DDP. The shape of the casting guides the wire down to the right spot. I expected to need to put a little L shape at the bottom of the wire, but I didn't find it was needed.
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DanHoug
Samba Member
Joined: December 05, 2016
Posts: 4800
Location: Bemidji, MN
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| Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 7:53 am Post subject: Re: Procedure to safely reorient your distributor. |
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huh. i'll be durned. with the marking, i suppose one is fairly confident the wire is landing on the washer.
did you feel the wire lift up slightly when raising the gear?
if the washers were to slide off, which direction with respect to front could they go? in other words, are there certain directions where they are captive and couldn't slide off?
will the washers come up thru the dist hole or are they too large?
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.
'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd
Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com |
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sanchius
Samba Member
Joined: May 03, 2007
Posts: 1456
Location: IN
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| Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 7:59 am Post subject: Re: Procedure to safely reorient your distributor. |
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| DanHoug wrote: |
| huh. i'll be durned. with the marking, i suppose one is fairly confident the wire is landing on the washer. |
Exactly
| DanHoug wrote: |
| did you feel the wire lift up slightly when raising the gear? |
No, I didn't feel any movement or binding. If the DDP felt like it was hanging up on the washer, I would have made a 2nd wire tool and held down the other side of the two washers as well.
| DanHoug wrote: |
| if the washers were to slide off, which direction with respect to front could they go? in other words, are there certain directions where they are captive and couldn't slide off? |
The washers are held pretty securely in the horizontal plane by the casting.
| DanHoug wrote: |
| will the washers come up thru the dist hole or are they too large? |
The washers will come up through the hole, but may get knocked off by the distributor drive gear on the way up.
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Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 50353
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| Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:48 am Post subject: Re: Guide: Procedure to safely re-orient your distributor |
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| I have lifted distributor drives many dozens of times using duck bill pliers or just a piece of dowel rod. Just don't lift the drive any higher than needed to rotate it and you will be fine. Lift the drive slowly and keep testing to see if it has cleared the brass gear and will rotate. It is important to note that you will have to slightly rotate the drive as it is lifted to account for the helix of the gear set. |
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sanchius
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Location: IN
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