weird distributor problem

[adamfgarner]

Hey guys...I am trying to troubleshoot an odd problem I am having and figured you gents out there that had converted to one of the custom made distributors sold by HEIDizzy on e-bay might have come across this....

the new HEI unit is shipped without the gear...you must grind off the mushroomed pin from the old one and re-fasten it with the odd little rubber/metal rectangle keeper and a new pin...once that was accomplished and my distributor was reinstalled I had a mysterious oil leak at the top/back of my engine...I figured out that I forgot the distributor flange gasket (where it meets the block) so I removed the distributor (which was full of oil), cleaned it up and re-installed with a gasket...after running the truck a couple of days I still had the oil leak...it is NOT coming from the distributor gasket...somehow oil is traveling up the shaft and filling the inside of the distributor bottom plate and leaking out from there....has anybody had this problem? is it possible those little rectangle keepers are not tight enough and allowing oil to spin up the shaft? Is there some seal above the gear I am missing? Anyone? Bueller? ...Bueller? ...Bueller?

[Funky61]

Adamfgarner,

I haven't done the HEI yet but you may look to the Jolly HEI performance page and also search the yahoo archives for info.

Also be advised when I did the archive search, one member posted about buying from HEI Dizzy and receiving a bad distributor and his poor customer service.

Here are some of those posts as well as the links. Good Luck and I hope it works out for you, excuse the long post.


http://6066gmcguy.com/hei.html

http://6066gmcclub.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6
Search the archives for HEI or distributor gear

RE: [6066 GMC] Re: hei dist
________________________________________
I believe that this is the person who made the distributors we were talking about last year. HEI dizzy is his website name or the name he used on e-bay when he was offering them there. As I recall, a few website members bought them and they had bent shafts or mis-machined bases, or other problems. The people who experienced problems also experienced problems getting him to stand good on warranty, etc. One of us noticed that the distributor he got appeared to be used and worn, and was told it was from "testing". We thought the "testing" was a previous buyer who rejected the unit due to poor quality. The group conclusion was that we should approach this person's product with caution. *
Bob Konradi Phx, Az

HEI Distributor
________________________________________
I ordered one of the billet HEI distributors from HEIdizzy on Ebay. i removed and reattached my gear and used the shaft shim the cam with the new unit. I did not use the roll pin that came with it. The OEM distributor had a rod through the gear as well as strange plastic bushings with center metallic inserts supporting the rod. I had a machine shop put a new rod in for me. The new setup only has only about .022 of endplay. The original unit had nearly 0.052 and no shaft shim. The new billet unit also does not have any oiling holes drilled in it. I am thinking of having the machine shop take the gear back of and remove 0.010 from the bottom new distributor and drill two holes to allow oil to reach the shaft. I would reuse the steel shim to help reduce wear on the softer aluminum. I was worried that the lack of endplay on the gear would excessively wear the camshaft. There also appears to be a groove for an "O" ring on the old unit but there was no ring to be found. Should I make these modifications to protect the engine and new distributor?

I have also acquired a used HEI wiring harness for the new coil. It is pink in color and has a split. Should I run one end of the split to the ignition switch and connect the other to the green wires that go to the starter solenoid and the generator? I will be omitting the ballast resistor.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Erick Hodge
Sumter, Sc

John,
Did you not get the reply to your question? I seen one posted.
Message #42762 by Gary in New Carlisle, IN. The gear is held on by a type of rivet that needs to be ground off at least on one Side, then driven out with a drift. Be sure to measure from the bottom of the mounting base to the top of the gear, next remove the hei gear by diving the roll pin out, next you will need to mark the location of the new hole you are about to drill into the hei distributor shaft to mount the GMC gear (if your GMc gear has the square hole with bushings around the rivet drill through the gear above or below (I can not remember the teeth and shaft) insert a new roll pin and you are done.
That is pretty much the same thing I did.
"Jolly" Goodfellow Northern Utah
Re: WARNING - A vendor to avoid / (EBAY HEI)
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Installed the HEIDizzy custom billet distributor last weekend finally. Got a replacement in the mail due to the first one having a slightly bent shaft from lack of packing materials.
The unit is pretty high quality, had no problems installing it. The one complaint I have (other than lack of communication and poor packing) is that the ebay description says to "just swap out your current gear." The GMC gears are riveted on like no other that I have ever seen! Most other gears of other makes are just held on by a hardened steel roll pin, which you get with the GMC HEI unit. The GMC's have a rectangular cutout in the gear where the pin goes. The pin goes through the shaft of course, and in these rectangular cutouts, there are two blocks of steel that the pin also goes through. The two blocks actually sit in a rubberized plastic "cushion" about 1/16" thick. Then there are some retainers over top of those that seat against the gear and sit over the cushioned area, giving it metal to metal contact. Then, lastly, an industrial strength hardened steel rived is peened over the retainer pieces.
Well, upon assembly, once you get that rivet out, you can press/tap the roll pin right through the metal blocks and the shaft. Without the rivet method with the retainers, I was left feeling like the factory method was far better... Threw it together like that for lack of time, and drove it twice since, runs GREAT! I keep thinking that i should just pull the thing out again, and take the gear to the drill press and make a new hole for the pin, so that I don't end up using the "cushion block" method of mounting. Either that, or I might replace the pin with a small grade 8 bolt and nut, zapping the nut with a MIG really quickly, and grinding it down smaller. Don't want to melt the cushion block though...
If you look at the GMC HEI conversion page linked in the V6
Performance section of the 60-66 site, look at the second method that says that it does not require welding. Look at the drawings to see the square block in the side of the gear. They show you just redrilling a new hole in the gear and using a gear pin in that method anyway!
Not sure what I will do, but the gear pin fits pretty snugly in the blocks, and seemed to hold them in there well, but I am skeptical of this long term, and don't want them to come flying out and let me down, so I think a better fix is in order.
All in all, at $130 plus cap and rotor for a remanufactured Buick V6
distributor, price before machine work and mods, the ebay HEI really wasn't a bad deal at all with cap and rotor. Seller isn't very personal or informative however... Part seems good, just want to do something better to affix gear to shaft. Thought I'd share my experiences!
Chuck in Ohio 1962 GMC 1000 panel

[adamfgarner]

Thank you for the reply Funkmeister!...researching now...have messaged the seller...anyone else have an idea why or how one could get motor oil on the inside of the distributor?

[adamfgarner]

Okay so here is the skinny so far...
Contacted the seller...he responded promptly and informed me that this sometimes happens when its cold or one uses thick oil - especially with V8 Jeeps...this is the first time he heard of it with a GMC...anyway oil travels up the shaft with rotation and comes out the top bush pooling in the distributor housing plate...the remedy as suggested by HEIDizzy was to remove the gear and shaft and drill a weep hole about half an inch below the flange....he assured me this would stop the oil pooling and that he stands behind his product for any future problem...basically re-asserted his warranty/guarantee as posted...thank you gents - I performed the mod. and put it back in - i'll drive it awhile and see if my oil problem stops...all you guys who do the swap in the future may want to do this fix before installing the new unit as pre-emptive....

[Funky61]

Adam, thanks for checking back in and letting us know what you did. Great to hear that he'll back his product.