Distributor Stuck - Yuck

I picked up an 86 2001 at the end of the summer. The boat was in decent shape and seemed pretty well maintained up till about 2011.The boat ran strong but has been down a bit on power. Of course the 5,000+ altitude here doesn't help.

When going back through the service records, I found a receipt from 1999 that said "distributor stuck, couldn't adjust timing". Sure enough, the timing light revealed that I was off by 10 degrees. Needless to say, the base of the distributor was heavily corroded.

I assumed the first time I put any force to it the housing of the distributor at the base would snap. I went out and purchased a new Mallory unit in anticipation.

I soaked the distributor down with Kroil for about 2 weeks. Grabbed the strap wrench and "pop", the housing cracked right at the base. So I went medieval on it for about 3 hours. Using everything from giant pry bars, torches, dremels and drills. Somehow the aluminum casting had become one with the cast iron block. Of course even the hold down bolt rounded off and needed to be cut off.

After fill the put with chunks of broken distributor and aluminum chips I gave up. I put the boat back in storage and let it sit for a month. With a 60deg day yesterday I went and got the boat and resumed my attack. I grabbed a right angle air grinder and cut the distributor shaft off just under the advance mechanism. This allowed me to get the rest of the body off and out of the way.



After I had room, I whipped out a real big drill bit (almost 1/2") and took some big chunks out of the casting. Once I did this I could hit the bottom of the housing (what was left of it) with a big screwdriver and got it to finally move a little. After some persuading with my giant channel locks, it let go.



I had to grind a little screwdriver into a file to chisel off the corroded aluminum from the block.



Things were going so good I tackled the broken hold down bolt. After getting the threads soaked with Kroil for a month, it barely put up a fight. I drilled the bolt with a cobalt bit and tapped in a bolt extractor. For the first time in my life, the bolt screwed right out without breaking off the extractor in it.

Now I just need to swap the gears on my Mallory distributor and perform a long awaited tune up.

Chuck

chuckactor wrote: Using everything from giant pry bars, torches, dremels and drills. Somehow the aluminum casting had become one with the cast iron block. Of course even the hold down bolt rounded off and needed to be cut off.

LOL I'd love to see a time-lapse video of this. Nice work finally getting it out.

Why not drill a properly sized hole in the gear to save modification of the new shaft?

Gotcha. I was just thinking if you mess up the gear that's a whole lot cheaper replacement than a Dizzy. I scored a NOS standard rotation 87- pertronix unit for my boat in the day and just swapped gears.

I guess cast iron and cast aluminum don't have a loving companionship. My 75 307 Mustang distributor came out without effort. Maybe being up front near the wet stuff (pump, thermo.) makes a difference..

Now that's an accomplishment.
Hope I remember the slide hammer trick.     

backfoot100 wrote: Maybe it's some other phenomena about having the dizzy being in front of the engine? You Ford guys always seem to have some kind of weird problem like this.

That's because they keep running and running you never have to mess with them. Pretty soon 20 years have slipped by. Good example is Jbears motor, 34 ish old only has had heads replaced. Now his mechanic,who has a newer Chevy has had to bore the block,replace pistons,cam,why I'll even guess the crank isn't original that's my theory anyway and I'm stickin to it

Gary S wrote: backfoot100 wrote: Maybe it's some other phenomena about having the dizzy being in front of the engine? You Ford guys always seem to have some kind of weird problem like this. That's because they keep running and running you never have to mess with them. Pretty soon 20 years have slipped by. Good example is Jbears motor, 34 ish old only has had heads replaced. Now his mechanic,who has a newer Chevy has had to bore the block,replace pistons,cam,why I'll even guess the crank isn't original that's my theory anyway and I'm stickin to it

That's too funny. You are absolutely correct sir. The crank is not original but it does run a lot better now then it ever did before, and it wasn't exactly a pooch in it's factory form.

FYI, I still do have the original crank. It's in prefect shape and I plan to use it for a new tow vehicle if the planets ever align. A marine forged crank would be the perfect base for a really stout 355ci tow motor.

I'm the guy who used the slide hammer. It worked really great. I'd recommend combining it with the chain wrench. I had it spinning about 1mm in either direction with the chain wrench before attempting the slide hammer. The slide hammer DID work really well though. I'd spray down the base with penetrating oil for days leading up to it.

Hey guys,

I realize this is an old thread but I thought I'd add to it instead of starting a new one.

Here's what the inside of my 86 PCM 351 distributor looks like. As you can imagine the boat runs terribly.



Where do you recommend buying a new Dizzy and what was the part number you used? Man I'm not looking forward to getting a rusted unit out of the block. Thanks for all the info in this thread though.

Dwight

Jonny Quest wrote: If you can afford the $385 price tag, the DUI marine distributor is the ticket: Link I have one in my SN. Love it. JQ

That looks awesome... does it come with the correct gearing for the 86 engine?

Also, I'm hoping for a cheaper option.

Those look like fantastic distributors but I find it hard to justify $600 Canadian dollars after exchange rate and shipping for a distributor.

I'm hoping someone may have used one of these:

click me

And swapped the gear from their old distributor.

That would come to around $275 Canadian dollars after exchange and shipping which would be a lot easier to justify on a $3000 boat.

Ill tell you what, if my old one comes out in one piece you can have it.

I just had new advance springs, new cap and rotor installed last summer. Otherwise its going in the trash if no takers. There is nothing wrong with mine other than the fact its rusted into the block and I couldn't advance it for my timing.

All winter my boat has been in storage and had the distributor in the block soaking in some PB Blaster. So im hoping it will beak free when I attempt to remove it next weekend.

Gary S wrote: Well why not go this route and reuse your old gear? Can't get any cheaper than that.

thank you Gary that's a great idea if h20extreme's offer doesn't work out

No its stock, I verified the rotation, I thought it was right handed based on how the front of the engine pullys turned. But I verified that its left handed of course with several mechanics and when I ordered the distributor that indeed if my pullyes are turning right handed if I am standing in front of the engine that I would have a left handed turning engine.