70's 302 RR Distributor

Thanks Art, we are all good and all of our friend s and family that were in the area for the marathon have checked in and are safe.
It's a shame what this person or people did we do live in the land of the free .... It's not fun having to think twice about taking your family to a large social event then worry if your going to get injured or killed. I will not live in fear.

Thanks all!
Just to clarify , in my ignorance I did not know that a Standard rotation and a Reverse rotation distributor spun in the SAME rotation! God only knows why I would of thought that a left or right rotation engine would spin the dizzy in the same direction? Because I know my engine is a reverse rotation engine and the firing order is reversed and I needed to buy a reverse rotation dizzy in my thought process that would mean that the whole dist was reversed!!
That said, I don't know everything, but I can hold my own.... I don't post here to be made fun of, I'm just trying to learn as much as I can.
I didn't see the little arrows in the diagram showing the dist rotation till after TRBs comment, and it all became perfectly clear after he said that both dizzys spin counter clock wise. Now I know.
Art,
Thanks for the insight on the gears, I pulled the dizzy this am and swapped the gears from one to the other and you were right.... At first fitting the holes weren't aligned and I was PO, but I took a minute looked and spun the gear and all lined up.
With all that going on in Boston today and with friends running the marathon the project took a back seat for the rest of the day, I'll start fresh tomorrow. Thanks, John.

Confirming what has been already stated, distributors turn the same direction regardless of engine rotation. Did someone actually tell you you needed a RR dizzy?

TRB is correct; that is why we have to have the reverse-cut gear and cam. It makes the dist turn the same way even though the cam is turning the opposite way. The RR cam also has the gear teeth cut opposite. That's always a handy way to tell whether any Ford engine with front distributor has the correct rotation starter on it. Someone has a no-start and just changed out a starter motor, first thing to do is open up the dist and see which way it turns. All front-dist Fords turn CCW as viewed from above, just as TR said. The reason for this is so that the axial thrust force "end-to end" thrust always has to be downward, because that is where the block is designed to absorb the thrust.

Now, to some obstacles you might run into swapping the gears: Sometimes the hole for the pin is not drilled truly on center. If you look in the hole and see that the gear and the shaft don't line up well, turn the gear 180 degrees on the shaft and check again. I have broken gears trying to push a pin into a misaligned one.

Since you will be going from a Presto to a Mall dist, check the height from the bottom of the gear to the hole. Sometimes it's different, and that presents a whole set of new hassles.

Art

Like i said, nothing rotation specific about the dizzy except for the gear. RH and LH distributors spin the same direction (counter clockwise as viewed from above). I've performed the swap described above several times. It takes 2 minutes to pop out the roll pin and swap gears.

There's nothing rotation specific about the dizzy besides the gear. You can likely swap the gear over from your old dist, assuming it is also a Mallory. Just verify that the shaft diameter is the same. You can buy a new gear for ~$30 if they won't swap.

I had the same problem do you have the old dist? If so you can take the Mallory gear off and put the old gear off the old dist. and it will work . I suggest to let some one that knows how do it because the gear breaks easy. I know it works because I had it done a month ago. If you need a dist. I also have one.

Thanks