The vacuum servo on my stock distributor is in contact with the cooling fan housing. As a result, I can't get the timing set below 32-34 degrees advanced at 3500 RPM. Not good.
So obviously, the drive gear for the distributor is not indexed correctly. A casual look at how its installed tells me I should be able to lift the drive gear/shaft and rotate it counter clockwise to get travel I need to get the timing down to 27 degrees.
Is there anything I should watch for as I lift and rotate the drive gear? In the parts diagram, I think I see a thrust washer/spacer in there somewhere.

Thanks in advance (lol) !

Tom

Yes, there is a spring on the bottom of the distributor shaft between it and the drive shaft. There is a washer on the bottom of the drive shaft (the shaft that goes between the crankshaft gear and the distributor). Use grease to hold it on there when you reinstall it.

With a stock setup it's probably best to set the drive shaft in the stock position. However, you can set it where you want, just start with knowing where TDC is and use a dial-back timing light and move plug wires around to the correct position on the cap. But, you said it's a stock distributor, so a stock position should be ok.

Put #1 on TDC on compression stroke , then install distributor drive gear/shaft like in the photo (from a VW vanagon, but the only photo I could find).

Thank you !

From workshop manual
Click to view attachment