distributor drive shaft aaaaargh!

germansupplyscott · Post by **germansupplyscott** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 1:45 pm

volks,

i have rebuilt a bunch of motors and the distributor drive shaft always seems to give me fits...

i am rebuilding a thing motor. it is bone stock and completely original, it had not been touched since leaving the factory i am quite sure. i am using the original distributor. the problem is that with the distributor drive indexed as per tom wilson book, the rotor points to 2 o'clock at #1 TDC, and this is where the notch on the distributor body is also. the book says it should be at 5 o'clock.

i started this motor when i bought the thing, and it ran fine like this, the plug wires were just rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise from what you would expect. i have photos of the motor in its original state and they bear this out. wire #1 is where wire #4 should be and so on around the cap.

so what my question is, is this: is the plug wire location on a thing different than on a beetle? or is there something funky going on?

scott lyons

ps. i have cross-posted this to the topica list

Post by **Marc** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 1:55 pm

If there's no interference problem you can leave it like this; there are distributors which require a different drive pinion orientation than shown in the books to make them end up in the familiar position, for example the small-can SVDA `74 (043 905 205) - sounds like you have one of those.

germansupplyscott · Post by **germansupplyscott** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 4:25 pm

marc,

exactly.

that is the one and it is the correct distributor for my model and year according to the oldvolkshome website.

would you change the orientation of the pinion or just switch the wires?

i did some poking around through my research photos and on the 'net, and every thing engine bay i saw had the wires in the 'familiar' places on the cap. except mine, that is.

scott lyons[/quote]

Post by **Marc** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 4:35 pm

punkinfair wrote:would you change the orientation of the pinion or just switch the wires?

Why? Can't you turn the distributor far enough to get the timing set right with the plug wires in their "correct" spots? Or is it just that it looks funny that way?
If you're confident that you can reposition the drive gear, that'd be the right thing to do - but that distributor shouldn't have any retard on #3 so it really doesn't hurt anything to merely move the wires. To prove it, check the timing on the "correct" #1 compared to the "correct" #3 - it should be virtually identical.