[DeTomaso] Update on Distributor Pin issue, plus Rally and Laguna

[Sean Korb]

I've been thinking about this a lot.  When I purchased my Pantera 20
years ago the reason it had been sitting and not running for *years*
with the previous owner was because of the distributor pin.  I
replaced it and it ran fine but I was suspicious. I pulled the motor
and after removing the oil pan my fears were confirmed.  Lots of
little bits of valve seals sitting in the bottom.  If you do have a
low mileage motor, it's really worth going through the motor, these
parts age and fall into the pan and it's unpredictable what could
happen.  They get filtered and it's not metallic, but the pump and pin
are in danger.  There's also a possibility of nylon cam gears
scattered about too. The manifolds and front cover and the heads were
off so I cleaned everything out; I replaced the valves with1 piece
units  and new valve seals. New timing set without the nylon gears
(noisy but the motor is 4 inches from my head) and while I was at it,
I checked the ZF ring gear, it was already safety wired (I think all
the -1 were wired).

I replaced the oil pump with a stock one, I knew it had been through a
lot even though it was currently working fine.

Anyway even if a Pantera isn't running, it's probably still a super
awesome deal and though I like to say it's a $0.07 cent part to fix
it, that's only technically true.  Same with any classic Ford.

sean

On 2/13/22, Daniel C Jones <daniel.c.jones2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>    The pin is rarely the issue.A  The cause is debris getting into the oil
>    pump gears causing them to lock up momentarily.A  The stock oil
>    pickups have a bypass hole and many aftermarket pickups have a
>    coarse screen.A  Either can allow debris to make it to the pump.
>    Ford switched to a full mesh screen on later 335 series engines
>    (351C/351M/400).A  In street cars, debris is often from failing valve
>    seals.
>    Dan Jones
>
>      A  A Our motor builder was aware of the pin issue.AA  A So our MSD
>      A  A distributor already hadA an oversized pin -- a 3/16" chevy pin
>      instead
>      A  A of the small 1/8" ford pin.AA  The builder used an MSD pin, so
>      he is now
>      A  A wondering if MSD had a run of bad pins and is concerned about
>      another
>      A  A engine he used one on (will be instructing theA customer to
>      replace
>      A  A it).AA  Anyway, we ordered hardened replacement pins, the
>      stronger grade
>      A  A of the two available grades of multi-layer Chevy pins made by
>      A  A McMaster-Carr to replace what was in there.AA  A All else
>      checked out
>      A  A ok.A A
>      A
>


-- 
Sean Korb spkorb at gmail.com http://spkorb.org (est 1994)
"Computers are useless.  They can only give you answers." -P. Picasso