Distributor Stuck - Yuck

My boat is an 85. I have had confusion on this topic talking with several marine and auto mechanics before purchasing my distributor.

If standing in front of my engine at the ski pole my crank is turning clockwise or right rotation, which means if I would be standing behind the engine the flywheel is turning to left or counter clockwise (standard rotation). Engine rotation is determined by the direction of the flywheel. I cannot speak for an 86 rotation but based on two different mechanics and two different online ordering sites they all said I def have a left handed rotation. Even after telling them the year and make of my boat they all said the same. So i am pretty confident.

gun-driver wrote: I'm no CC historian by any means and I'm sure Tim will correct me if I'm wrong... but I don't think they used "lefties" in '86. I would almost bet the house its a right hand'er if it is indeed stock.

'85 or '86
As Pete said if it is spinning the direction you say it is a lefty. And I would have to bet it is not the original engine. Is there an engine ID/firing order placard on the motor ( usually located around the left rear intake or head.)
Do you have a 1:1 transmission? (Just wondering about lean with a 1:1 and a lefty engine)

Yes my boat starts fine, I have never touched the starter. I know the previous owner said he did replace it once. I have had this boat for 10 years and never had an issue.

A 1:1 Borg Warner cannot change direction from input to output,ie if it turns left going in it will turn left out and vice versa. So in your case you have a prop that gets forward thrust by turning right. So your input to the trans has to be right hand turning engine. We know that for sure because you have used the boat in the past with this engine trans and prop. If you look at your prop it will most likely have a RH stamped into it too. Now in 89 I think they started using left handed engines when PCM came out with their own transmissions. The new trans included a angled output shaft which let the engine sit more level but it also reversed output internally. A standard lefty engine,same as an automotive engine now turned the prop to the right. You engine is a right hand turning engine. The right hand rotation camshaft has a gear that changes the direction of the oil pump and distributor so that they turn the same as direction as a left handed engine and that is why you need a distributor that is for a right hand engine. The gears will not match up when you go to install and will not let you put it in.

Here is a picture of my tag on my engine...

Engine Tag

H2oXtremes wrote: Here is a picture of my tag on my engine... Engine Tag

Jeremy,
That tag has some "R"'s in it!!

Well thank you all for your input, I guess since I already have the new distributor for a left handed engine in a box ready to go I will have to get to my boat and really be 100% certain that my engine is turning left or right. It sucks that it is 4 hours away but at least I will have an answer this weekend of which way its really going.

The previous owner or at least someone even etched with a sharp object into one of the pulleys the rotation that they are turning. Maybe my engine was rebuilt at one time I don't know for sure. Also I have read many other blogs on diff sites that the rotor rotation doesn't always tell the engine rotation..

As far as my water pump installation I know that is working correctly. picture of that is below of how I installed it.

Water Pump

[QUOTE=H2oXtremes] Also I have read many other blogs on diff sites that the rotor rotation doesn't always tell the engine rotation../QUOTE]

The rotor turns CCW in EITHER engine. That won't tell you anything.
Stay off the other sites for Correct Craft info. As stated above &
Post a pic of the distributor

I am trying to stay off the other sites, but this topic seems to one the worlds greatest wonders in the auto distributor world. after hours of googling I cannot believe there is no clear answer on engine rotation. Everyone has a diff view on this topic.

Even if I knew my engine rotation it seems some order sites will show a right handed distributor in the photo with the same slant in gear as my new left handed distributor. My receipt from skidim shows its LH but on other sites the same distributor for a right hand rotation has the slant the same direction as a left and a right handed one costs 100.00 more. SMH

So staying off other sites, I found a topic on this on this site about a 70's 302... people on here commenting that the distributors will still work if I just swapped out the gears. I am not sure if thats just for the 302 or will that work with the 351?

Here are a few pictures of my current brand new (LH) distributor.
New Mallory
New Mallory 2
New Mallory 3

H2oXtremes wrote: So staying off other sites, I found a topic on this on this site about a 70's 302... people on here commenting that the distributors will still work if I just swapped out the gears. I am not sure if thats just for the 302 or will that work with the 351? Here are a few pictures of my current brand new (LH) distributor. New Mallory New Mallory 2 New Mallory 3

A gear swap will be all you need.

You have to make sure it's a RR gear for a 351W Mallory distributor. (The 302 has a smaller diameter shaft and a gear with a smaller ID)

It needs an inside diameter of .531 inches to fit the 351w Mallory distributor shaft

You can go search around the internet or you could ask here and somebody would probably give you a Mallory part number like 9-26825. then you could verify that that's the right one

Also your old Prestolite gear on your present distributor would work with a new hole drilled in the gear to position the gear at the right spot on the shaft on the new Mallory

KENO wrote: A gear swap will be all you need. You have to make sure it's a RR gear for a 351W Mallory distributor. (The 302 has a smaller diameter shaft and a gear with a smaller ID) It needs an inside diameter of .531 inches to fit the 351w Mallory distributor shaft

IMOH it would be best to return the brand new unit and pony up for the correct one. It will be a drop in then and won't mess up any warranty or return. Jeremy may not have the tools or know how to do it himself and if it needs to be taken in to be done,that's not free either.

Take some Emory cloth and some O-ring lube with you.
Once you get the old dizzy out clean the opening up with the Emory cloth and put some lube on the opening/intake and the O-ring on the distributor.
Make sure to mark the orientation of the rotor on the old one and install the new one the same.

Sooooo what happened? I was able to get my old distributor out today pretty easy honestly. and I installed my new Mallery distributor and wired it as the hand drawn discount inboard marine layout showed. I did have a couple questons so I called I Vince at Discount to verify I was doing this right. My original distributor only had two wires, One going to the negative coil post and the other to the positive coil post.

The new one has one green that goes to the negative coil post the red would go to the resistor. the brown is the ground. I had Vince on the phone and he walked me thru the wiring.

However I told him well currently I have two wires on one post of the resistor and the other post has no wires. Needless to say he had me wire it just as the diagram showed.

I went to turn over my engine after all installed and wired... and turn the key and all I hear is one quick pop or click from the rear of the boat engine and now I have no power at all to my boat. It didnt turn over just pop or click... I noticed a breaker there at the end of the engine block but i tried to reset it but still nothing. Any ideas?

Yea I had it wired all correctly, it ended up being my negative battery terminal was loose. It started and worked just fine after that. I just thought it was odd when i turned my key I lost all power to my gauges and everything and it never came back. But they all worked fine until I turned the key.

Jonny,

I'm looking at buying the DUI for my '72 SN. I'm coming up with PN M35820RRBL. What is the difference in this one and the one in your link (DUI-M12720RRRD) ? These reverse gears must be made to order, lead time is a month out for RH rotation.