The pump shaft is definitely aligned with the distributor since it sort of rotates in on its own and the rotor no longer can rotate once it drops in as far as it can go. It goes down to where the o ring just barely sticks out from the timing cover. The oil pump shaft is from melling and the distributor is from TA. Anything I should try?
Maybe try turning the crank by hand with a wrench? Just to see if wiggling the cam gear allows it to drop in?
Unfortunately didn't work, tried turning it fully, back and forth while pushing down on the distributor and nothing. Weirdly the old stock distributor stops at the same point and goes no further
I suspect you are not getting the shafts on the distributor and pump to mesh. If the rotor is not turning once you have it in as far as you can, but it is still not seating and the o-ring is visible, the pump shaft is not aligned with the drive shaft on the bottom of the distributor. It's similar to engaging a torque converter into the pump gears. As the distributor gear engages the cam drive gear, it rotates the shaft and can cause the slot and tang on the shafts to misalign on that final half inch drop. If you suspect the slot and tang are incorrect fit, pull the gear off the distributor and the thrust washer(s) and see if it will seat with out them. You will know if the rotor cannot be turned with the gear off. If it does seat, you'll have to work on aligning the shafts to each other and find the "sweet spot". If it does not seat and you can turn the rotor, you might have a fitting issue of the shafts.
Solved it, it was not seating into the oil pump shaft, just the cam gear, now that I tweaked the shaft little by little it's in. First time engine builder problems
Thank you for the in depth explanation. Just posted my update above. It ended up being not on the pump shaft
