I am assembling my first motor and have several questions. When I rotate after putting the valve train together the distributor pops out? I've already lost my distributor alignment, but why would this be happening? Any easy way to realign the distributor? Maybe I was rotating the motor the wrong way - what way should I rotate the fan? Thought it was clockwise?

Thanks!

this should not happen if you have the clamp tightened. if it's just in the hole
when you spin it, it may have a tendency to pop out of the groove.

even if the clamp is tight, but not totally clamped, it can pop out when your driving.
I learned that about 15 years ago

to align, put the engine at TDC and place the score-mark on the distributor rim
where the rotor is pointed. this will get you into the ballpark and you should be
able to start the engine. time it appropriately from there.

good luck.

If I remember right, the keyway on the bottom of the dizzy is off center which makes realignment easy.

It sould not pop out of place if the clamp is in place.

If the clamp is threre and it's poping out, something is wrong.

Get some pics. posted if possible

The keyway is both offcenter and one slot is slightly wider than the other...

yes, this will get the rotor aligned but will not align the distributor.
I left this part out of my description of alignment of distributor because
I thought it was a given.

vance, align rotor to keyway (with engine at TDC), then align distributor to rotor.

carry on.

Concluded it is the cam bear that is pushing the distributor up - WTH? I assume I need to adjust the end play - hopefully that will eliminate it?

It's a helical gear it WILL walk the dist gear out of the case if you don't tighten the dist. clamp. Your problem is not only is the dist now out of time the drive gear in relation to the crank gear is also out. The cam gear doesn't rotate the dist.