Cannot remove distributor!

[shbop]

Originally Posted by Early_S_Man

The distributor will come out a lot easier when the engine is warm ...

The timing probably didn't change significantly over three years, but I am sure the centrifugal advance mechanism could use some cleaning, lubing, and TLC!

+1

[JohnJL]

Hahahah snbush67, thats a good laugh. However the penalty would be halved since the BFH never actually came in contact with the engine, it punished through the transitive property of steel cable.

I came up with that idea after becoming similarly frustrated with removal of my rear torsion bars on the track car. For that display of force I welded a bolt to the ends of the torsion bars and started with a slide hammer hooked to that before graduating to the sledge. After 2 tries.

[WMontald]

You can use a crowbar to remove your distributor.
I recently had to remove my Marelli distributr, (911 2.2 T 1970) for changing breaker points, and I could not rotate nor pull it out.
I came up with the crowbar, place a thick wood plank under the crowbar , use an elastic to keep clamps together and removed cable to CDI. and you can lift it out.


Still had tio use lot of force though, but eventually it came out, with no or limited damage to the distributor.

[burgermeister]

I have found that there are 2 types of O-ring. One is shaped - not quite oval, but definitely flattened - and one is round, like a traditional O-ring.

All but one of the gasket kits I've gotten over the years came with the round O-ring. I used one for a while. It made installing and removing the distributor incredibly difficult - I suspect the volume of the groove was just insufficient to hold the volume of the compressed O-ring.

At some point I got fed up and put the ancient shaped, oval O-ring (thankfully I keep a selection of used gaskets & seals) back in, and since I have been using that one I've had zero issues.

I have also since then gotten one of the oval o-rings in a gasket kit, so they do exist as a new part.

I expect that the oval version is correct, and the round version should not be used. At least on my 88.