Good morning all,

I am in need of some advice, your opinion. I have a fairly fresh rebuilt motor. It was finished in February 2002 and I have put around 9000 miles on it. I had the machine work for the engine done at the local speed shop, (has a good reputation) bore, line hone, cam bearings installed, cleaned etc. Head work done by Anderson Racing (ARI). I put the parts together myself; I have been a mechanic for about 24 years. I am ASE certified in engine building, drive train, and brakes. I am a Motor Sergeant in the U.S. Army. I used all new parts, stroker crank, .040 over pistons, reconditioned rods, new cam, new oil pump and pick-up etc. To see what all I have done, have a look on my web site.

Here is my problem.
I was driving down the street and the car died, no spark. Replaced the ignition module wa-la, good to go. While changing the module I broke the plastic clip that holds the magnetic pick-up leads to the module, I figure what the heck, went down to the part store a bought a new distributor, kept the module from the now old distributor and kept it as a good known back up, turned in the old distributor for the core.
Yesterday I was driving home from work and the car died, I pull out my good known back-up module and get ready to replace it, with the distributor cap off I have my daughter crank-it-over, THE ROTOR DIDN’T MOVE, oh no! Pulled the distributor and all of the gears were gone, GONE! The new rebuilt distributor is only 20 days old. I take the distributor back to the part store and they give me a new distributor, I buy some detergent oil and a new filter to flush out the engine and more Mobil 1 and a filter for after the flush. I change my oil every 3000 mile, always use Mobil 1 (after the initial break-in) I have 55 LBS of oil pressure at idle and 65 LBS at running RPM.

Here is my question.
Will the filings from the distributor gear tear up the engine?
Should the part store be responsible for the damage?
Should I drive the car or pull the engine and check for damage first?
What would you do?

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Ed

http://hometown.aol.com/idomy0wnracing

Did it wear down the teeth a little bit at a time? Or did it just snap them off all at once? Look down in the hole and make sure the teeth on the cam look okay.
I'm thinking that if the teeth just wore away, the filter will pick up anything small enough to get through the strainer. If they just broke off and fell in the pan, the strainer ought to stop them.
I would change the oil right away.
Get one of Rodney Dickman's magnetic drain plugs. It may help to pull any leftovers out. It sure won't hurt.
I don't think that anything is trashed, although I would document everything in writing, and keep it in a folder someplace, just in case. If something does happen to the engine, I would definitely hold the store responsible.

My question is why did it fail to begin with?
Was the distributor binding, so that it put too much stress on the gear? Look at the cap and rotor. Were they making contact anywhere?
The oil pump is also driven off the distributor. Does the pump still turn freely? See if you can turn it with a socket wrench or drill motor, like you would if you were priming it.

FWIW, this is just my opinion. I'm not a mechanic. Just a hobbyist. Perhaps others can add a more educated opinion.

Good luck, regardless.

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Raydar

First rule of hot rodding:
If "more" is enough, then "too much" is just right.

This is an image of the distributor gear. Looks like it wore a little at a time, I retrieved a couple of small pieces out of the pocket that the distributor sets in, next to the oil pump drive. I do have a magnetic drain plug; no chunks just real fine particles, looks like it has hair. Oil pump turns fine, not enough resistance that it should cause premature wear like it did. The cam gear looks fine.

Thanks,

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Ed

http://hometown.aol.com/idomy0wnracing

I think that I would, drain the oil, rinse the distriubtor hole with kerosene, drop the pan and clean it out. The appearance of the damage in the pic looks like it stopped turning or was very much misaligned causing the wear pattern. Is the bottom of the dis. shaft drive in good condition?
Also inspect the oil pump presssure spring as it may have broken down and stopped the pump for a second or two, causing the damage. At the least, inspect the oil pump as well.