Hoping someone can shed some light here. My list of "fix its" seems to be endless lately on my '97 Jimmy. First I did the clutch which was a PITA, people weren't kidding when they said that NV3500 was a BEAST.

Last week the fuel pump took a dump on me and left me stranded, so I had to have it towed to a shop and replaced.

The 4wd hasn't worked in ages, and I'm almost positive it's the vacuum line that runs from under the battery tray down into the front axle because it's brittle and cracked open.

The oil cooler lines have been leaking for a while now, so much so that the entire front lower end of the motor and k member are covered with a film of road grit pasted oil. I ordered the Dorman replacement lines and those will be going on in the next week or so.

Anyway, I've noticed lately also that the truck has been pissing coolant down the front and rear of the block, so I ordered the Fel Pro gasket kit (yes I got the good one) I followed the DTips install thread to a T. Went pretty smoothly, just time consuming. That is until it came time to put the distributor back in.

I followed the Tech article in the DIY section and thought I had it done correctly. I manually turned over the crank pulley clockwise until the lines on the pulley lined up with the ones on the front cover, exactly as the picture showed. I also used a long flathead and stuck it down the hole feeling around for the oil pump driveshaft until I found it. (major PITA because I couldnt actually get my head in there to see what I was doing, just felt around with the screwdriver) I rotated it until the slot in the top of it faced directly down the valley of the engine towards the front of the truck. Here's where the problems arose. I aligned the rotor matching the white paint on the shaft with the two pin holes and slid it back down into the hole. It reached a point about an inch and a half from being seated and would not go in any further. Forcing it caused the rotor to turn clockwise and it went in but there was still about an 1/8" gap at the bottom, as in it wasn't 100% seated. I pulled it out and redid the procedure at least 5 times and that's the only way it would go in.

That being said, the point on the rotor WAS pointing towards the "6" on the housing just as I've seen in pictures. So I buttoned everything back up and hoped for the best, but she won't start now. I looked and it appears that when I tried to crank the motor over it pulled the distributor in the rest of the way. I believe the gears were already seated because of the miniscule gap, so I don't think it was freespinning around in there.

Sorry for the long post, but I am trying to be as detailed as possible here. Any guidance anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. I do not want to have this thing towed to a shop if I can avoid it. Also, I double checked ALL connections were plugged back into their appropriate homes so I don't think that is the problem.

 

When you aligned the marks on the balancer, did you ensure that you had the motor at TDC #1 on compression? You could have installed the distributor 180* out.

 

i believe it did that because the distributor did not fully seat with the oil pump drive shaft. Once you turned it over, it seated and it popped right into place, if I am not mistaken. You are going to have to remove the distributor and time it again.

 

Can you elaborate? I was under the impression that by aligning the marks on the balancer, that would put the motor to TDC on #1?

I simply lined the marks on the balancer up, and then proceeded with dropping the distributor in.

I know it's got to be the distributor because when I try to start the truck the noise it makes while trying to turn over can only be described as a backfiring sound of sorts.

 

Had a simular problem on my 95 when I did the heads. You may only be 1 tooth off.
If you raise the distributor just enough to disengage the drive gear you can move it 1 tooth either way. Pull it up slow and pay attention to where it is pointing befofe you move it. Once you rotate it 1 tooth just kind of rattle it up and down and it will "bump" the oil pump drive into alignment. If it does not fire go back the other way, you'll have to go to the original position and repeat the process because it only works one tooth at a time.
Ifought mine for about 2 hours until a friend came over and showed me how to do it. 2 or 3 tries and it fired right up and purred like a kitten!
Do check the #1 compression stroke first. Pull the #1 plug and put your finger on the hole and turn it over by hand till you feel pressure, then keep turning till you get to the "0" and check the distributor. If it's close to where it should be then use the "bump" method. If not then pull it out and re-set the dist.
Hope that helps!

 

Take out #1 plug stick finger over hole have some one bumb starter till finger blows off the hole, then line up marks on balancer. Point the rotor to the #6 on the Dizzy base and you should be bang on. If the oil pump is i the wrong position it wont go all the way down. I never have much luck trying to turn it with a screw driver, so i just turn over by hand till it falls into place(with dizzy still in place). Works for me very well.

 

Aligning the marks on the balancer puts the #1 cylinder at TDC, but because the cam rotates at 1/2 the speed of the crank, it could be TDC under compression, or 180* off of TDC compression. You have to verify that it is on compression (bolt valves closed).

 

thanks guys, I'll give it a whirl.

 

180 out man thats the only prob you got get it to cyl#1 and you will be set