Slant six distributor drive gear

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NAPA. Ask for Balkamp part number BK6551120. It'll set you back around $6.50. The Dorman/Help gear is about half the price but is a POS. If a '61 Lancer isn't in their computer, ask for a year that is (usually '68 up), since they are all the same. Hope this helps.
 
Get one from Frank on here. He sells the good hardened ones. I gotta get me one.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Hey StrokerScamp, how do I get in touch with Frank?
 
The hole that the roll pin goes in to hold gear on dist. shaft. The hole in the gear you purchase has a hole but is not in the right place. With all the reading I've done I still don't know it's purpose but what I do know is it is not for the roll pin. See .org links above for details or factory service manual. I suppose a Chrysler design engineer is laughing his @ss off some where. I guess it might a reference point of where to roll gear to drill the hole in the proper place??????????????????
 
The replacement dizzy gears were not designed for the slant 6 ( I seem to remember Ford) and have more than one application.
Frank
 
66aCUDA said:
The replacement dizzy gears were not designed for the slant 6 ( I seem to remember Ford) and have more than one application.
Frank
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That's fictional. The slant-6 distributor drive pinion for a slant-6 fits only a slant-6 and was designed for a slant-6.
 
Pic that can be saved or printed that shows the proper way to set up a slant six dizzy.
 

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dge467 said:
Where can I get a good quality distributor drive gear for my 61 Lancer?
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http://www.pentastarparts.com.au/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=612

It is described as a replacement for the Bosch made gear. I suggest it would be satisfactory for the stateside versions as well. The stateside shafts (typical) that I measured were at .497" OD.

I know it's expensive but someone else might be interested. If the slant six community does not buy these gears and support that vendor they will be gone eventually. Why can I say this? Echlin used to make a steel gear -- not any more.

Failing this, try to buy the oldest NOS gear you can find. I purchased and measured a bunch of them spanning from the 1960s to the present. ALL OF THEM WERE DIFFERENT. The quality and dimensions deteriorated as a function of how recently they were made. All the roll pins were different too. The thrust spacers as well. I also purchased and measured distributors, rebuilt (by MOPAR) and OEM used and OEM rebuild shaft kits.

Note that the MOPAR rebuilt distributor did not follow the FSM guidelines. That was worth a chuckle.

After I finished comparing all these parts I gave them out to various members of the slant six community at no charge so they would not go to waste sitting on a shelf.
 
lowbudget said:
The hole that the roll pin goes in to hold gear on dist. shaft. The hole in the gear you purchase has a hole but is not in the right place. With all the reading I've done I still don't know it's purpose but what I do know is it is not for the roll pin. See .org links above for details or factory service manual. I suppose a Chrysler design engineer is laughing his @ss off some where. I guess it might a reference point of where to roll gear to drill the hole in the proper place??????????????????
Click to expand...

The OEM service shafts in the 1960s did not have a hole drilled in them. You would use the hole in the distributor gear to create a new hole in the shaft. You need to carefully look at the wear patterns on your existing gear (assuming this is possible) and ensure that the gear is installed centered with respect to them. This guideline should be used in combination with the FSM instructions.

The improper alignment of distributor gears from the factory, from the factory rebuilders and varying dimensions of parts was an industry wide problem. Ford alludes to this in their performance catalog. In case there was a scintilla of doubt about MOPAR escaping this issue, the examination of a NOS factory rebuilt distributor removed it.

EDIT: Do yourself a favor. If you do not have a proper drill press and clamp/jig to hold the distributor shaft in place then take the whole shebang to a local machine shop and have them do it.

WHY?

Because if you drill through the gear and/or shaft at a skewed angle it will mess up your timing. The Nylon gear expands dramatically at operating temps and the misdrilled hole will allow the gear to shift and rock as it operates. The same thing will happen if you mess up the thrust clearance. How can I say this with surety? Because I took the time to pull used distributors in wrecking yards and look at the wear patterns on the teeth of improperly replaced gears.

I have to mention the dual roll pin seen in the slant six dot org logo (factory 1960 drawing). The factory engineers were intelligent enough to know that the rocking of the Nylon gear would be a problem in performance applications. Accurately drilled dual roll pins would solve it.
 
I suspect that drawing was a goof. If they were thinking of using two roll pins to eliminate rocking, it would have made more sense to install them at right angles to each other, while the drawing shows them in parallel.
 
MadScientistMat said:
I suspect that drawing was a goof. If they were thinking of using two roll pins to eliminate rocking, it would have made more sense to install them at right angles to each other, while the drawing shows them in parallel.
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I agree that right angles would be superior but economical engineering would prefer a drilling jig that only had to shift along one axis. I don't think the drawing was a goof. Also, parallel dual pinning was already accepted sound engineering practice -- there are examples with transmission shafts.
 
convx4 said:
Pic that can be saved or printed that shows the proper way to set up a slant six dizzy.
Click to expand...

Be very careful when using this picture. One of the ways in which the aftermarket and (various) OEM gears all differed was in the inconsistent placement of the pin hole with respect to the gear teeth.
 
Kevin, it's difficult to tell whether you're a failure as a comedian or a failure at discerning technical drawings from illustrations, but practically speaking it doesn't much matter which kind of failure you are (and I am very pleased to make sure you're a failure at deliberately disseminating false and misleading information to those who asked a legitimate question in good faith).

Original poster (and anyone else who needs to do the subject repair job): Installing a slant-6 distributor drive pinion properly is not difficult. There is no tricky inconsistency in hole placement to trip you up. There is no substantial risk of getting it wrong and having it fail. All you have to do is follow the procedure—the real, actual, correct procedure that's been used successfully for nearly fifty-one years now, not the one Kevin has made up in an apparent effort to make himself feel important or something—and you'll have a successful result.

Here are two versions of the (real) slant-6 distributor drive pinion installation procedure—first, from the service manual:

Align gear teeth with centerline of rotor electrode. If gear is worn or damaged, replace as follows:

A) Install lower thrust washer and old gear on lower end of shaft and temporarily install roll pin.

B) Scribe a line on end of shaft from center to edge. The line is centered between two gear teeth as shown in fig 5. Do not scribe completely across shaft.

C) Remove roll pin and gear, use a fine file to clean burrs from around pin hole.

D) Install new gear with thrust washer in place, with hole in gear rotated approximately 90 degrees from old hole in shaft and with scribed line centered between the two gear teeth as shown. If it appears the new pin hole may interfere with the shaft oil groove, rotate gear to the centerline of the next pair of gear teeth, aligning again with scribed mark on the end of the shaft.

E) Before drilling through shaft and gear, place a 0.007" feeler gauge between gear and thrust washer, and after again observing that the centerline between two of the gear teeth is in line with centerline of rotor electrode, drill a 0.124" to 0.129" hole and install the roll pin.

CAUTION: SUPPORT HUB OF GEAR WHEN INSTALLING ROLL PIN, SO THAT GEAR TEETH WILL NOT BE DAMAGED.

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Now, my own writeup, with less scribing and more realism:


When you examine the new gear, you will see that a hole has already been drilled in the gear housing, and on first glance it will look as if this is meant to accept the roll pin. No. You must not use the single hole that is drilled in the gear when you purchase it. It's just an index hole for easy visual reference of the gear's position as you install it.

Push the top (rotor end) of the distributor mainshaft down towards the drive end. Place the new thrust washer over the drive end (bottom) of the shaft. Maintain downward pressure on the mainshaft, and fit the new nylon pinion on the drive end of the shaft with the existing single hole in the new pinion at right angles to the hole in the distributor mainshaft. Hold a 0.007" feeler gauge between the gear and the thrust washer, then ensure that the pinion is fully seated (all the way down) on the shaft.

Once you've positioned the new pinion correctly, drill through the pinion such that you create two holes exactly in line with the existing distributor mainshaft cross hole, taking care not to enlarge or ovalize the mainshaft cross hole, as this would allow the pinion roll pin to come loose.

Using an appropriate hammer and punch, drive the roll pin home such that it is even on both ends, does not protrude overly much from either side, and engages both sides of the nylon drive pinion.

Now that the distributor's fixed, how do we put it back in in the correct position? The distributor timing was lost completely when the rotor stopped turning and the engine kept on. You'll have to do it from scratch. The timing mark on the vibration damper can't necessarily be depended on as correct, for the outer ring member of the vibration damper—which carries the belt load—tends to slip relative to the inner hub, which causes false indications of overly-advanced timing.

First, you have to find true Top Dead Center. Pull the frontmost (number 1) spark plug, straighten a wire coat hanger, insert the end into the spark plug hole, and turn the engine using the fan and fan belt until the hanger stops moving upwards. This is TDC, and you've got a 50/50 chance that it's the correct TDC (the one between the compression and power strokes). With the frontmost piston at TDC, have the distributor rotor pointing towards the number-one spark plug wire tower of the distributor cap,
which is in roughly the 4:00 position. The drive pinion for the distributor is helical, so the rotor will move about 30 degrees clockwise when you push it home into the block; when you're aiming for a 4:00 position, start at about a 3:15 position before pushing the distributor into the block.

If you're fortunate, this will get the timing close enough for you to start the engine and dial it in correctly, but that helical distributor drive pinion can make a nuisance for even those of us who've removed and installed slant-6 distributors countless times. It can seem for all the world like everything's exactly where it's supposed to be, and yet the durn thing won't start! I usually just remove the distributor hold-down bolt, note the position of the rotor, carefully pull the distributor out, very slightly turn the rotor clockwise and push the distributor back down, thus advancing it by one tooth. Snap the cap back on (don't bother with the hold-down bolt, as long as you can see the hold-down bolt hole in the block through the distributor hold-down plate slot, you're fine), and crank the engine. If still nothing, advance the distributor one more tooth. Keep repeating this, and sooner or later you will get some activity under the hood. It'll likely start with a change in the starter sound — either the starter will struggle and hitch, or it'll spin faster as the engine "tries" to start, or maybe you'll get a "POOF!" spitback through the carburetor. Keep advancing the distributor a tooth at a time until the engine fires and runs. If you don't get a good result within four teeth, go back to your initial rotor position and start moving counterclockwise from there, a tooth at a time. One way or the other, as long as the distributor is hooked up(!), sooner or later you'll get a good result. Once the engine will start and run, move it one more tooth to see if the engine runs better or worse. If better, leave it there. If worse, go back one tooth. Then reinstall the hold-down bolt loosely, set your timing by the normal procedure with a timing light, and tighten down the bolt.

Once you've done all of this to 5 or 10 Slant-6 engines, actually doing the job will take less time than it took me to type this out.
 
Kevin Johnson said:
Be very careful when using this picture. One of the ways in which the aftermarket and (various) OEM gears all differed was in the inconsistent placement of the pin hole with respect to the gear teeth.
Click to expand...

My picture was to aid in aligning the top advance plate to the lower shaft with the gear on it. If you get them 180 out it will be hard to drop the dizzy back in the same position it was pulled from. This will cause the timing to be off and the car hard to start. The distributor adjustment is on the small side. I made the picture for my own use and felt it would be helpful and a nice reference. This info is not in any shop manuals that I have.
 
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