Topic: Motor - No Start

[J_Speegle]

................. What are the symptoms of a Pertronix failure?

For me failure "Car doesn't start"

Had another when the car would start back firing after 20 minutes of running.  Both were solved by replacing with points

Last attempt was - car starts when cold - would not start a second time after than

[lancelot66]

I'll replace the ignition switch because I have on hand, and because it's pretty easy, but I might try putting the points, condenser and rotor back in there and see what happens. Why not, right? Maybe I'll like that better than I remember!

[Rocket80501]

Got dist. with Pertronix in it, and no start. Trying to put the one with points back in it. Not having any luck getting the oil pump shaft to start into the bottom of the dist. Easy to get down to engage the cam gear and dist. gear, but won't go down further. Ron

[Bob Gaines]

Got dist. with Pertronix in it, and no start. Trying to put the one with points back in it. Not having any luck getting the oil pump shaft to start into the bottom of the dist. Easy to get down to engage the cam gear and dist. gear, but won't go down further. Ron

use a oil pump priming tool to turn the oil pump drive so that it is indexed the same as the bottom of your distributor . Here is one on ebay.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/OIL-PUMP-PRIMER-TOOL-1-4-Hex-FORD-Engine-289-302-390-428/372639484467

[CharlesTurner]

Another option is to put some grease down the hole to center the shaft.  Shine a light down there to see if the shaft is laying to one side.

[Bob Gaines]

The bottom of the distributor shaft is countersunk so a oil pump shaft to one side or the other in the hole usually gets moved more to the center as the distributor shaft comes down and makes contact. With that said sometimes a  tapping with a brass hammer on the top of the distributor shaft will bump the pump shaft towards the center and successfully indexed in the bottom of the distributor shaft. This process is done in conjunction with slightly turning the oil pump shaft with the primer tool or equivalent if it doesn't go in after a few taps.  It is not always this much of a pain but sometimes is. That is why (for those reading )I don't remove the distributor unless I have no alternative. 

[Rocket80501]

Just wanted to let everyone know that I finally got the distributor back in the Shelby, and it's running again. Thanks to everyone for the kind words, and support. Ron