Distributor may not be installed correctly

[Wade]

I am at tdc, and this is where my rotor is sitting. My finger is on wire 1. This is a D612-53 distributor.

Am I correct that my distributor shaft is out of alignment? It runs like this, seems alright, but I do need to dial it all in and not sure if this is causing me some trouble in doing so. I picked up a turbo oil pump and was thinking I should put the shaft back into alignment correctly when doing the pump, but making sure this indeed does look out of whack. I never took the oil pump out of this L28, so I am just assuming previous owner set it up like this, or perhaps when I put this 240z distributor on it maybe that's just the way its supposed to line up.

Also something has been bugging me about the timing advance plate and bolts, this distributor has 2 of them on the base. 1 is up top that maneuvers the gauge plate with degrees on it, and another bolt on the right side is adjustable also. Both when loosened can rotate the distributor. I am not really sure if I should have 1 locked down in a certain position and adjust with the other.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Wade

[beermanpete]

It does look a little bit off but it does not matter as long as you can set the timing correctly.

I view the 2 timing adjustment screws as a coarse and fine adjustment. One is easy to access (the on with the degree scale) and one is somewhat more difficult to access. I use the easily accessible one for minor timing adjustments. I only use the other one if I run out of adjustment range on the other.

[Wade]

Yeah its like exactly one terminal over, so the notch on the cap is directly below the #4 plug wire. I am changing the oil pump tomorrow, if understand it correctly from posts on here I could just slide the shaft out, rotate it into position and slide it back up to get me in the proper position? Then rotate my wires back to being normal. Kind of think I should just do it, just never messed with an oil pump before, has me a little worried pulling the shaft out as I was just planning on vice gripping it up top, don't want to get myself into some kind of jam where I try to get it back into position and I mess more up than do good.

[Diseazd]

It's trial and error.......make sure you are at top dead center on the compression stroke. Check the FSM for setting.......the half moon on the shaft should be exactly at 11:20, small section to front. It ain't rocket science. Do it right....you'll be happy you did.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Diseazd

[Wade]

Ok, I am good now. Haynes book was a little confusing, looks like the smaller moon goes to the rear in the picture, but I did as you guys said and everything was fine. Was a little worried about the shaft, never done it before, but after I got done I just thought "hmm, that was rather easy". Hardest part was getting sway bar back on. Thanks fellas.

[Jeff G 78]

Pull the distributor and see what the shaft orientation is. When I bought my 260 and tore the motor down for gaskets, it went back together and didn't run. After checking the rotor, it looked exactly like your picture. I knew I must have put the shaft in a tooth off, so I pulled the dizzy and checked the shaft orientation. Hmmm, it was at 11:25, right where it was supposed to be. Since I only had eight weeks to build my race car from the ground up, I left it alone and rotated the wires on the cap to get the car going. Later, when I got a newer distributor, I compared the 260 dizzy and the ZX dizzy and sure enough, the orientations were different. I have never seen another one off like that, but mine was different than any other S30/S130 dizzy I've seen. Looking at the way they are built, I never did figure how it could have been built wrong.

The point of my story is that is is possible for the shaft to be oriented correctly and the dizzy be off. Has anyone else ever come across a Datsun distributor that was off 60°?