Thread: My 64 Ford Custom Project

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Well...... didn't make it run prior to Tulsa and the radiator is still on backorder (I'll be checking with another supplier later this week).

Before we left on vacation I was having problems stabbing the distributor, so I set it aside till this weekend. When I was looking I found that the oil pump drive shaft was sitting HARD against the back side of the hole the distributor goes in.

The only way I was going to find out exactly what was going on was drop the pan. For those who haven't dropped a pan in car on an early 60's Ford, it's a lot of fun. After you get all the pan bolts out and the motor raised, you have maybe 2" to get a wrench in there and drop the oil pump (you let it fall into the pan) THEN you can get the pan off. It's even more fun putting it back together especially if you have added a windage tray like I did.

Well with the pan off I found out the crank counterweight was hitting the oil pump drive shaft......the extra thick heavy duty one I had installed. The shaft was bent causing the binding. Had I used the stock shaft like I will be putting back in there would not have been an interference issue. When you think about it there is really no advantage to running the thicker one anyway...it still necks down to the same original size on both ends.

Oh well, wish I had found it prior to putting it in the car, but at least I caught before I fired it.