I've seen on my '66 Toro that the distributor shaft has a octagon indentation for spinning the oil pump. I'm used to seeing a blade shape and so the octagon is the first for me.

When reinstalling a distributor with a blade shape the distributor is either 180 degrees off or it's dead on. However when reinstalling a distributor with the octagon shape shaft, the distributor can now be one-eighth off. If it is one-eighth off, will the engine still run? Will it throw off the timing mark on the crank shaft pulley?

 

Welcome

Have you found TDC on #1 plug (hole), if so drop the distributor in and with the cap off the rotor should be pointing at#1 this should be in the 5:30 area give or take a little. Remember Oldsmobile distributors rotate counter clock wise( back wards from Chevy).See if this gets you there if not someone who does this every day can explain it better....Tedd

 

As Ted said, get it to tdc and stab it in pointing to #1.

 

Thanks. As a little background, I replaced the carb with a newly rebuilt guy and at the same time had the distributor out. I got the carb on and the distributor back in after lining up the timing marks and setting the rotor to #1 cylinder. After a few redo's I finally got her started and running decent but not perfect. So now I'm thinking I might be one-eighth off on the distributor, or the carb might need fine tuning. Wanted to check about the distributor first to see if she'll run being off a bit.

 

you are mixing up the oil pump shaft with the gear to the cam shaft. it makes no difference what way the oil pump shaft goes in. With #1 TDC on compression, the rotor should point to the #1 cylinder. if it is a tooth off and you have room to adjust the timing you will still be OK.

 

Yeah, like Eric said -

The GEAR is the part that engages with the camshaft and determines the timing.
The hexagonal shaft engages with the oil pump drive, and can go on in any position.

- Eric

 

Cool, and that all makes sense and I'm glad to get this straight.

 

Take another look at that distributor gear. There are SIX sides to the recess, not eight.

 

But either way you cannot be a tooth off as all that needs to be done is turn the distributor to the right time. If it hits or interferes, then you need to relocate it.