HELP. MY 72 SKYLARK CUSTOM 350-4V DUAL EXT HAD 89K WHEN I BOUGHT IT 21 YRS AGO NOW 286K & has never EVEN needed a timing chain. IT RAN LIKE A TOP but I couldn't leave well enough alone - I PUT A PERTRONIX ELEC. CONVERSION on my dist. & it ran great for 2 days. NOW O OIL PRESSURE!! I PUT A REBUILT KIT IN THE OIL PUMP BUT SAME THING-NO OIL PRESSURE DID I POSSIBLY MESS SOMETHING UP WHEN I PUT THE DIST. BACK IN TO PREVENT THE OIL PUMP FROM WORKING. THANK YOU , MARTY - OXFORD,PA
If youe engine is running and not knocking I would think your guage might be bad. With 0 oil pressure your engine would loose a bearing/ bearings, be knockind and sieze. You might want to test it with a good mechanical guage to verify oil pressure.
If you don't seat the distributor in the timing chain cover, it will not drive the oil pump. Take a look at the distributor base, and make sure it sits flush. There is a tab on the bottom of the distributor shaft that mates with the oil pump drive.
Thanks guys , when i put the pertronix elec conv. On ,i lined the dist.up with the shaft slot & it ran great then i had to drive to baltimore and it sounded like the push rods & rocker arms were going to fly up thru the hood. I checked the dist. & had to retighten it & it ran great. After 2-3 times of having to retighten the dist a normal person would have put 2 &2 together - loose dist low or no oil pressure. After putting in the oil pump kit last night i checked the dist tonight like larry70gs said & i finally figured out that the threads the dist hold down bolt goes into are worn & the bolt & dist. Were coming loose running the oil pump halfway or not at all. Oh well with 286k a new oil pump kit can't hurt. Marty
Wow that was a hell of a save!!! It's just the little things that make for a bad time. Let me know how that Pertonix does. I intalled it on my car and I transfered it from a Chevy Dist. to a Buick Dist. and have already added a ground to the Dist., replaced the rotor, and the cap for losing spark. I think God is telling me to check the suspension on the car cause it pops in the trailer when the trailer shakes! Wierd!
Had an 83 V6 Regal. Changed the oil one day and it would not suck up the new oil. Pulled the oil pan and found the plastic teeth from the timing gear plugging the pick up screen. Replaced the timing set, cleaned the screen and problem solved.
That is just as good as my new rebuilt block that started knocking last week. Dropped the pan (again..as i had just removed it the day before to repair a leaky rear main seal)...found #8 rod bolts loose, unscrewed them by hand. Looks like i may have overlooked torquing it down. Removed passenger side cyl head to inspect for piston impact to head. Fortunately, all good. I guess this would fall into the "nice catch" category. :eek2:...i sense we could start a nice catch thread and fill it with lots of stories.
One correction- i thought the threads were stripped where the clamp bolt goes in ,but they were not,a lock washer solved the problem, but i never had a dist. Clamp bolt do that. It was tightened as tight as it it would go & never happened before . Only after pulling the dist. To put elec conv. On ????? Thanks, marty
Inhad a similar thing happen after a cam change...distributor did not engage fully...but i had no pressure right a start up. Who knows maybe your clamp was in a position where it was locked but not fully engaged and that vibration from driving loosened it which then allowed enough room for your dist shaft to disengage from the pump. At least you caught it in time.
