Hi everyone,

I am new here - have a 79 CJ7 with 360. This is the first engine that I built myself - nothing but a book!! I built it back in 1999 and since then the engine has maybe 3-4K miles on it - if that. I used my original timing cover because I did not know to look here or from what I learned from various shops in the Washington DC area(where I was living at the time) Crown was not tooling them yet. Anyway, my pressure was at around 11-12 at idle and 38-40 - this is on a new engine. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered a timing cover kit from bulltear. I had them assemble it so that I did not have to worry about those tiny clearances!!

So, I spent the last 2 days working on it and now have it to the point where I need to just install the distributor. I did the rear main seal at the same time as that was leaking a little. Of course the crank moved and such so all markings are useless. I know how the distributor housing should sit in relation to the cover, but I CANNOT for the life of me get the stupid shaft to engage with the oil pump shaft. I have seriously spent almost 3 hours on this. I used a drill to prime the pump - never done that before - kinda cool!! I assume that it is primed as it used to spin freely and now there is resistance which I am assuming is oil and I hear what faintly sounds like a gurgling noise when turning it with a screwdriver now...

Of course, I did not test fit my distributor in the new cover to make sure it would engage, but I never thought that would even be an issue!!!! I am taking into account the rotation of the engagement of the distributor gear and the camshaft gear.
Anyone have any ideas?!??!? I am at my wits end here.

Thanks!
Joe
Richmond, VA