Distributor Pin Replacement

[BakersChoice]

Hello all,

Looking for some advice here. I'm in the process of replacing the seals on my distributor and I got the pin out of the gear shaft, however I can't find a replacement pin. Does anyone know the size of the distributor pin? I don't have the old one on me so I can't match it at the auto part store, but I do know that a 1/8" is too small and a 5/32" is too big.

[lglade]

3.5 mm is a standard spring/roll pin size for European cars, and that would fall between the two dimensions that you cited.

[FiatMac]

Hello all,

Looking for some advice here. I'm in the process of replacing the seals on my distributor and I got the pin out of the gear shaft, however I can't find a replacement pin. Does anyone know the size of the distributor pin? I don't have the old one on me so I can't match it at the auto part store, but I do know that a 1/8" is too small and a 5/32" is too big.

Why do you need a new pin? Unless you damaged it or lost it you should be able to re-use it. This pin is a tapered pin not a standard rolled pin. Do a search on this site for "distributor pin".

[BakersChoice]

The pin is slightly scewed/bent, I've been trying to get it back in, but I get it about 90% of the way in, then it won't budge.

Thanks for the size reference, now I just need to find a place that sells metric pins!

[spider2081]

Has anyone actually removed a pin in good enough condition to measure it and confirm it is tapered??

[76was124]

Has anyone actually removed a pin in good enough condition to measure it and confirm it is tapered??

as Stan said, it's tapered.

There are two good videos on YouTube....assembly and dis-assembly

Dis-assembly at :https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wzYxTlV8kKs

Further confirmation of Stan being correct can be found at the 4:30 minute mark of the video

[spider2081]

I have removed about 6 pins in distributors all have been pretty hard to get out. None of the pins I removed remained straight. None of the pins I removed would I attempt to reuse. In my opinion the IAP video is misleading regarding distributor disassembly and reassembly. All of the pins I have seen appear to have a "head" on one end and are peened over on the other end. I have tried grinding off the peened end and drilling off the peened end and then driving out the pin. I have not been able to measure the tapper with a micrometer. I think the head end of the pin has a slight step in it and that this is there because the opening the gear appears larger than that in the distributor shaft. I have replaced the solid pins with 3.5 mm roll pins and they seem to work well.

This is why I am questioning if anyone has actually measured a good or new pin to see if there really is a taper and which end of the pin is the larger diameter, Maybe I have been driving them out backwards and that is why its so hard.

[BakersChoice]

Yeah not sure. Anyway I try to put it back in usually ends in the pin not budging past a certain point, because it's a little bent. I even removed the gear and made sure I had it lined up perfectly and the way it should be mounted.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to look at the distributor. Someone broke into my car last night and ripped off my ignition switch. They couldn't find anything of value so they decided to yank what they could get.

[spider2081]

If your car had a stock ignition switch and they unplugged it with out damaging the wires you might post in "Parts Wanted" for a good used switch. I am pretty sure new replacement switches require some wire changes.

[BakersChoice]

Thanks for the advice, just posted something in there so we'll see what happens. The one in my car was one of the Lada ones, I bought it from autoricambi I think and it came with instructions so the install was pretty painless.

[azruss]

I had the same issue and gave up and used a roll pin. As I recall, I got the closest one i could find at the local hardware store.

[131]

I've removed taper pins and roll pins from distributor gears. Roll pins are easy to remove with the right size parallel punch. Taper pins are harder, the peened ends have to be filed off to determine the small end of the taper, it's then driven out from that side.

[BakersChoice]

Ahh ok. Yeah I'll definitely be using a roll pin. I couldn't find one at my local hardware store so I'm going to try a bigger store like Lowe's or Home Depot and see if they have one. The one thing I like about the local hardware store is I can get anything like that individually, not sure if Lowe's or Home Depot will have them individually or not.

[RRoller123]

https://www.belmetric.com/

These guys are excellent!

[FiatMac]

Midwest Bayless has a rolled pin for this application.