97 Distributor Rebuild - internal seal

[South Texas 97]

Folks, after living with this for since I got the truck, decided to see if I could rebuild the distributor shaft seals - has anyone else done this? I could not find anything on the site on this topic, so thought I would give it a go.
This shows the dirty Diaper (pig mat) I have been using for the last 18 months (replacing every couple of months)

You can see here the internal leak along the distributor shaft (the external O ring was replaced not long after I got the truck, and it was certainly crusty)

I am assuming there is some sort of seal within the barrel of the distributor, or perhaps in the base of the body?

If I missed a rebuild on this, please point me in the right direction.

Cheers

 

[LandLocked93]

That seal is typically replaced by a new dizzy. There is no part number for it.
If you have the appropriate measuring devices you might be able to find an o-ring matching the measurement. edit:but you'll still need to add a few thousandths to account for wear/shrinkage of the measured ring.
Who knows its composition tho so may still develop a leak after some time with the wrong type of material.

 

[BILT4ME]

Folks, after living with this for since I got the truck, decided to see if I could rebuild the distributor shaft seals - has anyone else done this? I could not find anything on the site on this topic, so thought I would give it a go.
This shows the dirty Diaper (pig mat) I have been using for the last 18 months (replacing every couple of months) View attachment 2962586
You can see here the internal leak along the distributor shaft (the external O ring was replaced not long after I got the truck, and it was certainly crusty)

View attachment 2962587
I am assuming there is some sort of seal within the barrel of the distributor, or perhaps in the base of the body?
View attachment 2962591
If I missed a rebuild on this, please point me in the right direction.

Cheers

Yes, someone here rebuilt a distributor for the internal seals

It's been a few years ago and they did it to experiment. It was successful, but it was difficult and they had a lot of machining experience.

I would have to search for a bit to find it.

 

[LandLocked93]

Yes, someone here ... did it to experiment. It was successful, but it was difficult and they had a lot of machining experience.

+1 ^^

 

[BILT4ME]

Folks, after living with this for since I got the truck, decided to see if I could rebuild the distributor shaft seals - has anyone else done this? I could not find anything on the site on this topic, so thought I would give it a go.
This shows the dirty Diaper (pig mat) I have been using for the last 18 months (replacing every couple of months) View attachment 2962586
You can see here the internal leak along the distributor shaft (the external O ring was replaced not long after I got the truck, and it was certainly crusty)

View attachment 2962587
I am assuming there is some sort of seal within the barrel of the distributor, or perhaps in the base of the body?
View attachment 2962591
If I missed a rebuild on this, please point me in the right direction.

Cheers

Read through this one and all the links to other threads.

Looks like @Kernal is the one that did this.

Dreaded internal distributor oil leak!

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Kernal]

To answer the OP's question, yes there is a shaft seal and a bearing inside the housing of the distributor. If you look closely underneath/behind the reluctor ring at the center/base of the distributor (cap removed) you can see the seal on one side of the shaft bearing. Underneath that is a shaft seal with a unique design that is not available from any source. Similar size bearings and seals are available however but the whole process IME/IMHO is not worth the hassle
or risk of messing it up.

Distributor oil leak

forum.ih8mud.com

Long story short, if you haven't yet pulled your distributor apart, don't. That slight leak is not harmful (maybe that's what the weep hole is for??), just pop the distributor cap off once a ? year and clean it out with Electronics or Contact cleaner. Never use Carb or Brake cleaner as those can damage the old seals and make them worse than they already are along with possible damage to the plastic wires/pick-ups.

If you really need a distributor I'd recommend buying a new one (OEM $$$ or aftermarket).

And if you're seeing a lot of oil in the area around/underneath the distributor it's very likely not from the internal shaft seal leak. Most often the big leaks in that area are from the Oil Pump Cover gasket (O-ring) and second is the distributor housing external O-ring shown in your photo just above the red arrow. Then rarely IME you can see leaks from the timing chain cover where it mates to the block, one specific area is directly above the oil pump cover.

Here's some light reading:

How to Replace Oil Pump seal w/ Pics

I recently noticed that I had an oil leak coming from the front of my motor. After cleaning up the front of the motor to determine where the leak was coming from it was easy to see that it was coming from where the oil pump cover mated to the timing chain cover. I crawled under the truck once...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[South Texas 97]

The actual rebuild and part numbers can be found on this thread