thedinz
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2014
- Messages
- 82
I was doing wires, cap, rotor on my 5.7 Mercruiser this weekend, first time doing it and it was going well until the rotor would not come off. I tried everything but ended up having to break it off piece by piece, wasn't that bad to do, and just cleaned up all the pieces and was ready to add the new one. This came as one kit, maybe not a kit but a package the marina put together for me. Everything was correct but the rotor is confusing me for this reason. The reason being is that the new one has a channel lock (i think it's called) and yet my distributor appears to be a solid round shaft, no notch. This is odd because wihtout the notice wouldn't the rotor distributor just spins freely without the rotor turning?
I felt all around it with my hand and it feels smooth, no notches, no other piece stuck in there, which leads me too..... I talked to a boat mechanic (a friend of a friend) and he seems to think that the channel lock is stuck in the notch on the distributor, when we broke it off it must have stayed in place and it being stuck might be why it was such a PITA to get off. The only thing that causes me to pause on that idea is how smooth that shaft is, if the lock was stuck in the channel I feel like I would be able to feel it, if not see it.
I wanted to get your opinions, and the reason I am here getting opinions and not digging into this issue is that I was working on it later on a Sunday and I ran out of time/light, and then its been raining the past few days so I'm trying to get a head start so that the next day I can work on it I can just get right to it. I was in the process of winterizing and this stopped me dead.
The next items on the list would have been to fire it up, change the oil, drain the block, anti-freeze, fog etc etc.
** that was my original post, since then most users have agreed the channel lock is in there, my question now is whats the best way to get it out?
I felt all around it with my hand and it feels smooth, no notches, no other piece stuck in there, which leads me too..... I talked to a boat mechanic (a friend of a friend) and he seems to think that the channel lock is stuck in the notch on the distributor, when we broke it off it must have stayed in place and it being stuck might be why it was such a PITA to get off. The only thing that causes me to pause on that idea is how smooth that shaft is, if the lock was stuck in the channel I feel like I would be able to feel it, if not see it.
I wanted to get your opinions, and the reason I am here getting opinions and not digging into this issue is that I was working on it later on a Sunday and I ran out of time/light, and then its been raining the past few days so I'm trying to get a head start so that the next day I can work on it I can just get right to it. I was in the process of winterizing and this stopped me dead.
The next items on the list would have been to fire it up, change the oil, drain the block, anti-freeze, fog etc etc.
** that was my original post, since then most users have agreed the channel lock is in there, my question now is whats the best way to get it out?
