Stuck Dist

[Swank]

Afternoon everybody,
Trying to get a stuck distributor out of a 292, anybody have any tricks?  Need the whole thing out the block, dont want to budge.

-eugene

[JimNolan]

Liquid wrench and a small brass hammer. Go get a coke and just start tapping all the way around it.

[59meteor]

Are you hoping to save the distributor for re-using?  Since the oil pump is external on Y Blocks, you could remove the oil pump, and use a long punch, or the correct sized hex steel stock, tap with a hammer from below. Depending on how badly stuck the distributor  body is, that might wreck the distributor.

[suede57ford]

Heat, Freeze Off Penetrant, and some Patience.  Heat the base of the dist and the block area, when still hot, spray the "Freeze Off" Penetrant on it.  Let that sit. Repeat the process a few more times.  The penetrant actually cools the part as it come out of the can, so the shock in temp can loosen the dissimilar metals.  It is flammable so you may need to burn off the excess before reheating.     After a couple cycles start trying to turn the dist with a punch.  If you don't need to save the dist housing you can get pretty aggressive.  If your trying to save the housing, go slow, as it's easy to break them.  I always assume that the housing might break on one that has been the weather for years.

[Swank]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Yeah, trying to save it.  Had the engine running couple months back, but never bothered with the dist.  So far ive been tap-tapping the mess out of it in between PBlastering it.   Not even thinking about moving.  Going to go for the heat deal tomorrow. 

[John Palmer]

You have to get the body loose enough so it can turn a little, "before you try and get to come up".

It's like working a rusted nut.  Back and forth then spray, back and forth then spray.  You do not want to force it before you get it to break loose.  BE PATIENT!  We used a bent pry bar, and a very large Snap-On screw driver to break them loose.

After you get it broken loose so it can turn it, then you can move on to step two.

Having done dealership tune up work during the 1960's, we ran into sludged up distributors all the time.  It was so common that we built a custom made slide hammer for the job.  It had a large flame cut crow foot cut out of 1/2" thick flat bar.  It was welded to a offset bent bar that positioned the slide hammer pull directly over the center of the distributor.  If you could get it to turn a little first, you were golden, because the slide hammer would pop it out of the block.  I can't remember even one cast distributor body that cracked. 

[Swank]

Thanks for all the ideas.  I think i used them all too.  Fire, fire, freeze, tap-tap-tap, pipewrench twist, ...repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat

Finally let go without breaking anything.

-eugene