I was told by a Porsche mechanic there is a "trick" that is fail safe for pulling the distributer without loosing parts into the case.

Any "tricks" ?

I loosen the adjusting bolt, rotate the dist so I can see the 10 mm bolt holding the adjusting clamp down and remove the distributor with the adjusting clamp.

Good luck.

remove wires and remember where they go. loosen clamp and remove dizzy. i didnt remove the clamp when i took mine off, but i'm no expert. mines a 75 2.0, don't really think theres anything to be dropped into the case, unless your dizzy is busted.

I've heard that if you pull out the distributor drive gear, a washer can fall off inside the case. The gear doesn't come out with the distributor though. Also, make sure the area around the distributor is clean, or all the gunk will fall into the hole once you take it out.

It's the drive that you have to be careful of. The distributor can be taken in and out all day without concern. Take the clamp out with it otherwise it can damage the o-ring on the dist. shaft.

It's the drive that needs to be removed to index the distributor to the crankshaft. Get the distributor out of the car as mentioned above. Find a dowel that will fit the hole on the inside of the dizzy drive. I use the little bambo stakes that gardeners use to stake up plants (don't laugh it works). Go to the nursery and get a package. You will get almost an unlimited selection of dowels approximately 5/16"- 3/8" and one will fit the dizzy drive snuggly. Stick it down in the hole and press it into the dizzy drive. Lift it out with a little rotation.

The little washer will probably stay on the boss but you may need to realign it with the hole. That step can tighten or loosen your sphincters cause if it drops you get to split the case. This is all tough with the engine in the car cause it's hard to see. About half the time the washer comes out on the drive (this is a blessing). Put some thick grease like wheel bearing grease on it and press it on shaft so it will stay put.

Put the dizzy drive back in in th orientation you need. Wilson's book has a good diagram on page 14 (I think).

Dave

remove the engine lid first. dave, have you removed the mallory from the new engine?

kevin

Yep, it's in the box

Dave

can you give me a call inbetween patients? i'll free up the phone line.

kevin

Turn the engine to TDC (rotor pointing to mark on the distributor) before pulling the distributor. It will make it al whole lot easier to put it back in the right orientation.

Yep, find top dead center #1. In his case the rotor will point somewhere else cause the dizzy drive is off. The timing mark on the fan aligned in the notch on the shroud will get TDC #1 or 3 but he may need to check the rockers on cylinder #1 to know for sure he has TDC #1.

Dave

Prior to removing the dizzy. Grab a sharpie permanent marker and index the distributors position. Then, when you put it back, line up the index marks & your timing will be at least very close when you reset the timing.

DN Hunt

You brought up an interestng point ...

When I installed the dizzy during assembly the factory mark and rotor lined up at tdc because I followed Jake's video on the crank position at that point of assembly. When I adjusted the valves on the bench tdc checked out on #1 with the fan , cylinder/valves and dizzy.

Still my dizzy is off by 90 degrees. I can only assume when I put the dizzy in place I was not aware of the fact that it should have been pointing [the mark] towards the front of the engine?

Any of this make sense?

Find top dead center of #1.

Take the distributor body out and look down in the hole at the distributor drive shaft. If it is oriented differently than this diagram, you nee to reindex it. Looking at it the slot should divide the shaft and the larger portion should be toward the middle of the case. The end of the slot closest to the firewall should be slightly closer to the midline of the case.

If you need to reindex it you need to take the spring out of the hole in the middle of the drive shaft. Then find something that will wedge into the hole. At this point if you are over 50 go void youself. Then remove it like I suggested above. It doesn't just come straight out, it will rotate just a bit going out and back in so don't fight that.

It's really not so hard but it is tense when the washer stays on the boss cause you're scewed if it drops. I would have some long, fine tweezers handy to fish the washer out if you need to.

Dave