Distributor issue, rotor has too much movement???

[Builderguy]

Had to change the pick up on this as the wires were mouse eaten. Now the rotor will turn almost 1/4 turn back and forth without moving the shaft. I don't think that is the way it was before I got my hands in the mix. I don't know if I dropped a spring or something else but I has to be pretty easy to fix, I just don't know it.

At this point (while turning clockwise, to the left) I can feel spring pressure:

Now if I turn it back to the right (counter clockwise) it will do a hard stop at this pint:

Maybe this is right, but it doesn't feel right to me, so I will stop and ask the question.

 

[AR67GTX]

Cheap rotors they sell today. I put a small shim under the metal tab that mates with the flat on the shaft - think it was a small washer. That has tightened them up for me and stopped movement. But might want to be on the watch for a higher quality rotor.

On second thought - a full quarter turn is a lot - the ones I fixed were moving probably 10 - 15 deg. Maybe the metal spring tab is missing all together.

 

[toolmanmike]

Cheap rotors they sell today. I put a small shim under the metal tab that mates with the flat on the shaft - think it was a small washer. That has tightened them up for me and stopped movement. But might want to be on the watch for a higher quality rotor.

Yep. look closely and see if the shaft turns when the rotor does. Contact @HALIFAXHOPS for a quality rotor.

 

[blue69runner]

Just went and bought a new one from summit. Might check with Jegs. Did not figure I wanted to put old part's in a new motor.

 

[Builderguy]

It is the factory distributor that it was born with so I really don't wont to change it out. The rotor turns with the shaft in the clockwise rotation (as normal) but when you stop turning the shaft you can turn the rotor and additional 60 degrees or so more, in the same clockwise movement without the shaft moving.

 

[69 Sleeper Bee]

Well that’s way to much
The shaft should maybe click turn a degree or so at most in the engine.
The rotor when properly pushed down on the shaft really should not move at all.
If it’s in the rotor itself you have a bad one or an incorrect one.

 

[Builderguy]

Missed a call from a Mopar friend of mine that I sent a video of the problem to. Now I can't get a hold of him. He was kinda laughing and said I was missing a screw. Great, I have no idea which screw he is talking about, maybe the one in my head, IDK. He is a little funny sometimes. I have a distributor on a 360 dodge truck that I can pull and tear apart to see which "screw" he was talking about. Not a huge problem as I have a brand new one I can install to break the cam in but I don't want to tear that one apart to reverse engineer this one. Sooo, the 360 one will get pulled as soon as I get back from vacation, next week. Could have swore that I put everything back the way I took it apart, but that would just make me wrong.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I think your cam plate spacer cracked and is gone. Way to much movement there. Take it apart and see what the issue is, definatelly something with the cam plate. Hope it helps.