[Jared]

Will a distributor out of a earlier 351w bolt right in to a 351 that came with the messed up variable set up? I went to the salvage yard and all the distrbutors i found had about 1/4 in. shorter oil pump drive. I am just concerned a earlier one might be too short and not drive the oil pump drive shaft and i'll run her dry. I was thinking about taking the engine out and throwing in some new bearings and an oil pump, so i might just put a diff. drive shaft in with a older dist. all advice welcome. thanks for your help.

[lluciano77]

If you look in the distributor shafts you will see that the longer one is deeper inside where it engages the pump shaft. When they are too long all you have to do is cut the extra 1/4" off the longer one where the dist. shaft engages the oil shaft. I don't know if it will work the other way around when they are too short.

You could spin the engine with a bumpstarter and see if any oil pressure shows up on an oil pressure guage with the short one installed. Even at that slow a speed you will read something if the oil pump shaft is spinning with the distributor.

Other than that I would think that you would feel the distributor being able to seat all the way onto the shaft in the correct position, and wouldn't go in the wrong postion. You know how they spin down into place when you are installing them. Well if it could go all the way down in any position you would know the distributor is too short and not able to reach the oil shaft at all.

[cliff tate]

put some blueing inside the distrib.oil pump drive inst and remove you will see how much drive there is. 1/4 in is min, cliff