Distributor vacuum canister hits oil dip stick?

[JMB]

I tried to adjust my timing the other day cuz my engine just seemed slugish.
I found out that when I turned my distributor counterclockwise (towards the engine block) , I could not do it cuz the tip of the vacuum canister on the distributor would hit the oil dip stick.
This is probobly why it was left in the 12 O'clock position (facing the firewall)

I am going to remove this distributor cuz I bought a DUI and im planning to put it on.

My question is:

Since the size of the DUI is much bigger than the distributor that I have now , will I have this problem aswell? Thanks in advance.

 

[DupleDreux]

JMB,

I had the exact same trouble when I was running points.

Pulled the Dizzy and rotated it one Cam Gear tooth over (clockwise I think) and no more problem.

When I went to DS II I bumped it over another tooth so the Canister was pointing more to the shock tower, a little more trouble with accessing the clamp bolt, but no interferance at all.

It might take a couple of tries to get it right, and make sure you have enough slack in the vacuum tube.

Hope this helps!

mark

 

[JMB]

DupleDreux,

Thanks for the reply.

I thought that if I remove the old distributor I would have to put the new one in the same exact position as the old one to keep the same firing order.
Cuz that is what the instructions on the DUI says. Infact it tells me to mark with a pice of chalk wherever posible the position of the rotor before removing the distributor.
And this is the exact position that I should install the new distributor.

 

[fordconvert]

A much easier way to do it is to just move all the plug wires over one position. The dizzy does not know or care which one is which. They just have to be in the right order. When you do that you will have to rotate the dizzy (like you do to adjust timing) quite a bit to get back to where you were but then you should have plenty of space to adjust the timing as needed.

Like others said the 'right' way is to pull it out far enough to move a tooth or two on the gear. This is a pain because the oil pump shaft usually does not cooperate and it ends up taking several times.