After 6 years on a carefully rebuilt Y block ford 57 type distributor And engine, while on a run on the weekend the engine died suddenly, luckily less than 50yds from my buddys house. Rotor not turning , pulled distributor and found it was totally seized in the shaft, so much so that it had shorn off the roll pin on the gear ,which in its self was almost a press fit on the shaft. Cam gear looks ok, sigh of relief. Factory oiling cap even in stock configuration is almost impossible to get oil into to keep the felt wet. What are the suggestions as to to a better solution to distributor shaft oiling . This one was so seized it was decide to raid my parts stash to build a new dizzy. Its a bored 292 in a 49 ford coupe. Probably close to 3” between dizzy and firewall .
Ford used essentially the same distributor design from '57 until EFI came in, with variations to fit the different motors. The later ones didn't have need for intermittent lubrication, I'd look into doing some parts swapping/mods.
At present the thought is to put in an upright oiling tube with some sort of cap on top. We have hood louvers and it rains here.
From what I read on the YBlocksforever page the 57-59 are ball bearing units. A ball bearing can lube itself with “fumes” for years. I also understand the rear of the left side rocker arm system oils the distributor by the overflow but thought that to be only the gear. Perhaps the oil on the gear finds its way to the ball bearings.
The ball bearings referred to are located on the outer circumference of the breaker plate and when they seize up, and they do, the only part effected is the vacuum advance mechanism. The most common cause of a seized distributor is the use of a gasket between the housing and the block. I have no idea why gasket manufacturers include one in their kits but under no circumstance should one be used. As can be seen in the enclosed picture the underside of the cam gear is machined. It is designed to ride on a similarly machined surface in the block. The angle and rotation of the engaged gears pulls the distributor down and keeps the two surfaces in contact with each other. When a gasket is used it raises the housing (and the two surfaces) by about 1/16 inch. The rotating cam will keep pulling the distributor shaft downward until the steel parts around the advance weight area have ground into the aluminum body. Continued driving under these conditions will have the inevitable result experienced by the original poster. Not saying a lack of oil would not cause the seizure, but in my experience (and bet) a badly placed gasket is the culprit.
We did not use a gasket on the base of the body. Never thought of installing a gasket there. But the distributor gear appears to have been driven up the shaft by the cam gear, to a point of exposing the roll pin hole below the gear. Agreed though a badly placed gasket will in time cause grief.
I have a y block distributor with an oiling tube provision built into the unit. I think pulled it from a 1955 F-100 motor.
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