Busted stud, Distributor won’t drop in

[chrisd0729]

Working on two problems today! My distributor hold down stud somehow broke for no reason as I found the stud and holder laying on my garage floor. Haven’t even had the hood open in months and this somehow snapped. As Im working on getting this broken stud out of the block, I nudged the distributor which lifted a quarter inch and it now it won’t drop back in. Any thoughts on how I can get the distributor to drop back in place?

[strictlypersonl]

Try rotating the crankshaft a bit at a time, or have a friend rotate it while you fiddle with the distributor.

[chrisd0729]

Will do, is there any chance it slips in in the wrong position? Or once it goes in, it’s safe?
I’ll obviously check timing once it’s in, just don’t want to blow anything up

[69boss429]

Originally Posted by chrisd0729

Will do, is there any chance it slips in in the wrong position? Or once it goes in, it’s safe?
I’ll obviously check timing once it’s in, just don’t want to blow anything up

rotate in reverse of running rotation and it should drop back
barely a nudge should do it

[Gaz64]

Would help if we knew what engine this is.

Thank you.

Gary

[chrisd0729]

Ah, sorry about that. My signature isn’t showing for some reason.
It’s a 2017 BDR with the VMS 427

[RET_COP]

whoever tightened that hold down clamp must have put some torque into it, and during the winter it shrunk a little and maybe due to a cheap stud, it snapped. Just snug it. I've never heard this happen before. 1/4 " that dizzy should go right back in with some of the advice given. You can still time the motor if the dizzy is one tooth off as long as the new rotation can be achieved. (vacuum canister might hit something or vacuum hose too short, wires are too short and wont allow rotation,) have your timing light ready on startup. With the cap off see if the pointer is on #1 wire terminal with #1 cylinder up ready to fire close to TDC. Put cap back on, look at the arrangement, does it look the same. That should tell you if all went back together the way it was.

[Chicagowil]

I ad a similar problem with my distributor not dropping down into the engagement and seating all the way down. It tried measuring everything thinking the there was a problem with the shaft dia being somehow too large since I was swapping out to a carb from a EFI dist. Turns out, all I had to do was disconnect the coil, and crank (tapping the key slowly) and the dist dropped right down!

As far as the bolt being snapped, Have not seen that. Tend to believe RET COP might be right about it having been over tightened and it finally fell off the motor onto the floor during a recent startup