Re: Driving oil pump through distributor
Great discussion -- glad I asked! Yes -- I have done this many times before on Ford racing engines using a discard distributor with the gear, weights, etc removed and spun with a half inch drill. Since I haven't had to deal with Chevies until the boat, I thought that I'd post the question to see if there were any unique issues or things to avoid. For example -- the early Ford big blocks use a hex shaped shaft between the oil pump and the distributor. Would you believe that the only thing that retains the shaft when you pull the distributor is a lousy "E" clip that hits the underside of the block to prevent the shaft from pulling out. Had the misfortune of that clip breaking on two different engines necessitating dropping the oil pans to recover. Thereafter, we always put set screw collars on the shafts when building the engines. So...how are the shafts retained in Chevies when you pull the distributors?
Well live and learn _ good info > going to get an ole dist. and make a tool.
