Anybody near Goodlettesville Tennessee? I’m on my way to the Olds National meet, I think the bronze distributor gear is junk. I’m about 40 miles from Nashville.

Car was running flawlessly, heard a pop under the hood, now it barely runs.

 

I’m sitting here waiting on a tow truck, now that the car has cooled down I decided to do some diagnostic work. I pulled the cap off the distributor, bumped the engine to TDC on #1, noticed the rotor was a little off from where it should be. I figured BINGO! The bronze distributor gear is junk!! I tried to turn the rotor to check for excessive backlash, the rotor just spun freely!! Pulled the distributor, no gear on the bottom of the distributor!!! Part of the roll pin is still in the shaft.

Anybody have a bronze distributor gear, roll pin and a timing light at the olds meet?


BTW, this is a MSD distributor

 

Add to the shopping list: a pair of needle nose pliers. The gear is still down in the engine. Unfortunately, bronze isn’t magnetic, so I’m going to have to fish the gear out with pliers.

 

Would one of those flex cable grabbers work better than needle nose pliers?

 

Maybe, I figured pliers would definitely work.


Im still sitting at a gas station waiting on a tow truck. 😡. This is infuriating!!!!

 

Looks like my Nashville area Olds contacts didn't transfer to my newest phone or I'd have got you someone to call.

Matt, most Nationals have a hard luck award for situations like this. Make sure registration desk folks know about it.

BTW how old is this distributor? If it's fairly new I'd have a discussion with MSD.

 

Matt, I live in Huntsville AL . I am heading to the Nationals tomorrow morning. and I will be going up I-65 to Nashville for a stop first. If there is anything a can help with please let me know, just send me a message on here with a phone number.

 

After waiting 4 hours for a tow, and getting the run around und from TWO different tow companies, I finally got the car to my hotel. the tow only cost me 325 bucks 😡😡😡!!!! for a 44 mile tow.

I’m staying at the Motel 6 on Chaffin drive, according to the GPS I’m 2.8 miles from the host hotel. I would LOVE ride from here to there. Im hoping maybe I can find a gear there, if not my wife will be bringing the truck a d trailer. Im sure those of you in readerland can guess what the drive home will be like!!

The distributor is about a year and a half old, maybe 6k miles on it. This is actually warranty replacement, the first distributor has no anodizing on the tone wheel. That distributor looked like it had been underwater, everything was corroded. I’m waiting on a return call from MSD, we will see how that goes.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

on one thread a member posted he was close to the nat site and would have a garage availible if needed ill try to find the post i dont recall the username

 

If there is an auto parts store nearby you can probably get the part you need over night or at least by tomorrow afternoon worst case. Hope things improve.

 

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...1/#post1351217

here you go usernameis toocool

ill send him a pm w a link to your thread

 

I just got off the phone with MSD, sounds like they want the distributor back for inspection. Both tech guys I talked to said the same exact thing, and I quote “that shouldn’t happen”, hopefully they can get the distributor overnighted, if so I’ll install it here and hopefully drive home.

Always something !!!!

 

Make sure MSD know you were on your way to a national marque show when what shouldn't happen did.

If ya win the hard luck be sure to thank them though!😄

 

I made absolutely sure they knew I’m stranded, snd I have had more than my share of problems with their products. What sucks is 2 hours prior to my failure I drove right thru bowling green (Holley and MSD headquarters are there) it would have been great to have this problem right on their doorstep!!

It would make my day to win the hardship award, only because that means nobody else had bigger problems!!!

 

I really hope no one else has a worse problem. Yours is bad enough. Only 2 hrs away, a good PR department would have had somebody on the road to you with a new distributor soon as you got off the phone.

I'd look for a good HEI in the swap meet or even get one from a parts store as return trip insurance. Unless of course MSD takes care of that for you.

95 Greensboro NC meet, a 1968 Ninety Eight from New York limped the last 20 miles with a rear axle bearing failure. As soon as it arrived and Bill Black Jr (Black Cad-Olds of Greensboro, our chapter's dealer sponsor) heard about it, the Black rollback picked up the Ninety Eight and Black made the repair at no charge, returning the car to the show before lunchtime Thursday.

What a shame there are no Oldsmobile dealers left to look after us like that.

 

oh damn, sorry to hear this, Matt! Hope you're rolling again soon.

 

Times two that sucks. All the work you put in to get everything right and then this. Sounds like you will be good in the end. Sorry you have had to deal. Oohhhmmm....

 

I talked to Mark (EFIcutlass)) about the possibility of just putting a HEI in the car for the drive home. Once again, the roller cam kinda screws me. I have to have the proper gear, it would really suck that a swap meet distributor tears up the camshaft.

 

Look at a couple things.

You are with your car and have somewhere to stay.

You are in the cross hairs of so many Oldsmobile people where you are.

This will end well.

 

I was sweating bullets worried about the other pieces of the roll pin getting caught in places that could do some serious damage. Turns out my concerns are unwarranted, the rest of the roll pin is still in the gear!!!!

Pin in the distributor shaft. How in hell does something like this happen?! The oil pump driveshaft is keyed to the gear, the gear is driven by the camshaft. The distributor shaft isn’t under a load, the shaft spins freely in the distributor housing, so why did the pin break?!

 

If this is a coiled spring type pin, those things are near impossible to break or even cut with a saw. Good ones, anyway.

Guess you just got a bad one.

Glad you were able to get the gear and pin out intact. No sign of damage on the gear?

 

The only other thing I can think of is maybe the oil pump is seizing. Before you put the distributor back in, test it if it means going to Home Depot for a cordless drill.

 

I had the same thing happen to me. Coming home with pizza, the car just shut off as I coasted down a side street. Luckily I was a block away from home with a few strapping high school hockey players on empty stomachs all too happy to run over & push me home.

Post Morten revealed free spinning rotor which led me directly to sheared pin.

The good news is that you’re not in deep trouble. I Hope the rest of your trip is more enjoyable!

 

The engine has plenty of oil pressure. Even if the oil pump was seizing, the gear would strip or the shaft would twist. The only thing the roll pin does is line up the distributor shaft with the gear.

 

Sounds to me like there might be some faulty parts involved. Chinese maybe?

 

There are lots of better engine brains on this list than me.

I’d suggest that when you replace the roll pin and gear, compare the length of the 2 sheared pin parts to the length of the new roll pin to convince yourself that there are or are not pieces of metal roll pin squirting around in your engine.

If you’re missing too much material, your worries are well founded & consider not running it. If not much material is missing, at least you looked and you may have more confidence firing it up with the new gear/pin.

I wish you all the luck I can muster. Hope you don’t need it. My uneducated guess is you’ll be fine.

Enjoy the show and remember these cars were built to be maintained and rebuilt if needed. Not like today’s throw-away stuff.

Chris

 

Well, I made it home. Unfortunately, I spent almost all of my swap meet/fun money on tows and the uhaul home.

I did get to meet and talk with several members of this forum. It’s nice to have a face and personality to go with the persona here.

Big huge thanks to Ron for the ride from the hotel to the Uhaul place, and then another ride from that Uhaul to the correct one!! Loved his Vista Cruiser!!! Ron, if your ever in central Indians, let me know. Dinner is on me!!

You meet the nicest people with Oldsmobiles!! Pretty sure that’s either a song, or was a commercial long before my time.

 

See. That's what it is all about. You had issues. Oldsmobile folks (Because we love being Olds geeks) It all turned out well. So many people had your back.

Glad that you of all people. You are smart and understand mechanical. You seek the problem. You get it. Have a Great rest of the week. So cool to hang out with like people.

 

I had the roll pin work its way out of a 455 stock distributor with a mallory unilite conversion in 2008, that was not apart since 1988 but it happened at 5500rpm and let 2 valves contact the pistons, consider yourself Lucky!

 

You have returned. Good.

 

I think you are thinking of the Oldsmobile song from the fifties. Doris Day even sang it..

There's a special kind of feel..
In your Rocket Oldsmobile...

So glad you are home and as is well. What's a road trip without something?..

 

MSD finally got back with me yesterday. They want the old distributor back for evaluation, since they said they have never seen this problem before. After much griping and complaining, they agreed to send me a replacement distributor. I told them multiple times there is only so many weeks of summer, I didn’t want my car down while they did their investigation. So that put one of the few positives on this trip.

 

Matt - It was painful following your fiasco. Glad you are finally home and decent enough of MSD to send you a replacement distributor.

 

My wife asked me yesterday if I regretting going on the trip. At first, I thought I did. But after a little thinking, I’m still glad I went. Sure, the trip didn’t go as well as I hoped. My blood pressure was no doubt they the roof dealing with the tow company. I spent almost my entire budget on tow trucks and the Uhaul. On the plus side, I saw lots of Oldsmobiles. I met and talked to a lot of people, some of them members of this forum. It was nice putting faces to some of the familiar names here.

I spent about 800 bucks on tow trucks, uhaul, and the extra fuel. That was obviously not my plan!!! However, I know some people who think nothing of gambling and loosing far more than that on trips to Vegas and casinos, and enjoy every minute of it.

 

You lived, no harm, and had an experience. I'd call it good.

 

Im glad you made it home ok Matt, it was good meeting you. Maybe next time under better circumstances.
Ron

 

I cant tell you enough how much I appreciate the assistance. You have my number, if your ever in the central Indiana area let me know!!