The Panhead & Flathead Site

Post by gordon on Jan 12, 2005, 4:52am

Has anyone ever had that cheap little roll pin come out of the end of the distributor, dropping the dist. drive gear into the gear case and lunching the motor? I'm about to install one of these in a pan motor I'm building and that roll pin doesn't look very safe to me. Not as strong as the oem Dist. that has the peened over solid steel pin. Anyone know where I could find an OEM Dist. drive gear pin? Thanks Guys

Post by billy on Jan 12, 2005, 7:08am

Gordon-

If you have an OEM part # try http://www.nosparts.com

Post by gordon on Jan 12, 2005, 8:07am

Hey thanks Billy I've got two part numbers one for 41-65 and one for 65-? I'll contact that web site and see if they have one that will work

Post by panomania on Jan 13, 2005, 2:52am

yes! i ran my new mallory about 300 miles and one night i was on a old country road with a couple of friends and ( bang, studder, studder, bang) and i was strander waiting on a trailor to pick me up. the roll pin not only came out but it tore the keys out of the oil pump also. I wrote mallory and described the problem and they really didnt care. after a oil pump rebuild and new roll pin beveled on each end were running again. i wished i would have notice before... good eye you have!pano

Post by Mbskeam on Jan 13, 2005, 5:58am

WOW
Pano.....
I bet that after geting off the phone you would have put it right up there arrrss. BIG end first,if they gave that lip service to you in person. I bet that they would care then.
Glad to here that it didn't cause to much in the way of damage.It could have been very bad to say the very least.
gordon....
yes that is a good find, thanks
mbskeam

Post by billy on Jan 13, 2005, 6:04am

Anyone doing any work on this, I certainly wouldn't 'just replace' the pin. I would make sure it was a "tight tap-in fit", & use appropriate Loc-tite.
I've seen some damage from this little pin..
Better safe than sorry.

Post by Mbskeam on Jan 13, 2005, 6:25am

hello,
on a stock dist set up has any one not been able to get the pin out, On mine It does not even move, and short of cuting on things, it will not come out. so my ? is: do, can the OEM style pin bend. any body been there done this
mbskeam

Post by Plumber on Jan 13, 2005, 7:21am

The pin on an OE circuit breaker, #255, is available from Kick-Start (616) 245-8991. Use an automatic punch to mark the current position of the gear on the shaft. (I like to mark the original position of gear to shaft, since the OE hole was drilled in relation to nothing.) You need to remove the washer to measure the thickness, to know what size washer to install so you have 0.008" or less up and down free-play. Put the shaft in a soft jawed vise and drill the mushroom out, down to a depth of 1/8" on each end of the pin with a 5/64 bit. Use this bit to "walk" the old peen over to dead-center so you don't drill into the sidewall of the shaft-hole. One end of the pin is usually not peened, so automatic punch a divot in the center of that end and use the 5/64 bit to get started, then switch to a 1/16" bit. There are four thrust washers in a kit (Kick-Start has them). The one used is usually the 0.076" thick one. - A brief description of the process from (as yet un-published) M & O Guide, Vol. 2.

Post by gordon on Apr 23, 2005, 10:47am

Well I'm a littie happier with how the gear is held on the shaft of this dist. now. What I did to fix it was get a longer rollpin , tap the one that came with the dist. half way out fill the hole with red loctight then tap the longer one in the hole driving the old one out , left the longer rollpin sticking out of both sides of the gear , cut off the excess rollpin on either side of the gear with a cut off wheel on a dremmel tool leaving a couple of thou. sticking out on either side , took a punch and an anvil and peaned the two ends flush with the gear. That I hope will hold it all together!
Gordon

Post by Weez on May 1, 2005, 6:09am

I just bought one of these Mallory Ign. I hope that there aren't too many other problems with it ???
Is that the only problem that people are having? feedback appreciated................Weez

Post by PanPal on May 2, 2005, 2:41pm

Gordon,

What you did makes perfect sense to me. I recently did a similar thing when rebuilding mine.

Mbskeam,

Those suckers are tight. Had a hell of a time getting the old one out of mine too. I wonder if they are not peaned over when they are installed. I made sure I used the same pin and peaned mine after I reinstalled it.
It sure doesn't help that you need to use a small diameter pin punch to remove it. I snapped a few before using a shorter one piece punch to get it to budge.

Post by kell on May 5, 2005, 11:51pm

Weez
I ran a Mallory for a while. Worked fine... don't know if there's any problems with them other than the roll pin issue. I don't think so.

Post by Weez on May 7, 2005, 6:42am

I'll make sure the roll pin is right thank God for this board.............and all the members.