Posted by Pete Anderson on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 5:41PM :
Hi all,
I have a 230 flathead six in my '50 plymouth, and have an apparent issue with the oil pump.
I'm using a Langdon's Stovebolt mini GM HEI distributor, and found after getting the engine running that the distributor is wobbling around in an arc with the rotation of the rotor. At first I thought the distributor must be defective, and returned it for another, only to find that the second one is doing the same thing.
I tried turning the engine over with the stock distributor, and it too is wobbling.
This leads me to believe that the problem is the oil pump. Someone over on the P15-D24 forum suggested that I may have a military oil pump, for the 24v Powerwagons, which has an offset tang hole for a corresponding offset tang on the distributor shaft. I did buy this oil pump from Vintage Power Wagons along with the rest of my rebuild parts, and they didn't know it was for a civilian engine, and I didn't know there was a difference.
My question is, would the civilian type distributor shaft even fit into the military type oil pump? Are the ends of the two types of distributors the same other than an offset?
Anyone have pics of the military type oil pump for comparison?
Below is a pic of the Langdon HEI shaft.
Thanks for any info,
Pete Anderson
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