excessive distributor shaft play, msd distributor

DarkoStoj

Founding Member
Sep 4, 2002
929
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39
Detroit
well after a long and terrible hunt down for my misfire problem I found it to be the distributor shaft has way too much backlash(excessive play when you move the distributor shaft to the left and right). This has caused all kinds of misfires, headaches, and whenever i would put a timing light on it i couldnt set the total timing because the light was all over the place giving me a reading between 30* and 40*.

I guess now that I found the problem I need to figure out how to fix it. I looked at the cam gear and dist gear and they both look fine. Its a F303 cam and a msd large cap distributor. The motor is fairly new and the distributor looks brand new inside and out.
 
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FWIW, the timing can jump quite a bit when you check it with the SPOUT connector in place.

How much was your timing jumping when you checked it with the SPOUT connector removed? It should have been pretty rock solid.
 
FWIW, the timing can jump quite a bit when you check it with the SPOUT connector in place.

How much was your timing jumping when you checked it with the SPOUT connector removed? It should have been pretty rock solid.
i dont know what a spout connector is. This is on a 302HO motor thats carbed in a 65 mustang fastback.

well...i looked up the part # of the msd dist and it came with an iron gear. I ordered a steel replacement and am hoping the iron gear wore down which caused the slop in the distributor.