Distributor replacement on a 400,000 mi. motor?

89 4.0 Renix

My mill has 435,000 miles on it and I want to swap my dist. because of all the play in the shaft.

Problem is that the guys at Firestone didn't index the reman. dist. when they fixed my sync pulse stator in 2000.

The base of the dist. doesn't even sit flat on the block( 1/8 gap).

Besides the fact they had to move the plug wires one position clock wise to get it firing.

I didn't notice all this until a few years later.

My question is will I mess up the cam gear or dist. gear if I put a new dist. completely engaging the cam gear?

The old dist. has alot of up and down play and side to side and oil gets up inside thru the shaft under the cap.

I have a JY dist. that has no play in it for the replacement.

I don't think you got an answer to your post because it's sort of confusing.

You said: "My question is will I mess up the cam gear or dist. gear if I put a new dist. completely engaging the cam gear?"

To answer your direct question: No it won't

Yes, I did express myself poorly.

Thanks for the replies.

My concern was the dist. not being fully seated and the gear not wearing even.

But on further examination it looks like it is flat to the engine but just not indexed correctly.

It does have alot of play up and down and wiggles side to side and oil gets up in the top past the shaft seal.

So I will put the other dist. in and hopefully fix an oil leak in addition.

Maybe it might cure some of the "loping" I get at start up when idling.

Don't forget to put a new distributor mounting gasket on there.