302 Oil pump/Distributor shaft length ?

[Robin Little]

Hi .

Looking for a bit of support and advice on the oil pump shaft length on a crate marine 302 that’s rebuilt a few years ago.
This engine was a new old stock marine engine which I stripped and checked over / changed Cam etc and has only ever run for a few minutes in the garage since built as marriage and 3 kids currently take up most of my time! Although starting to get back into it again.

I have converted to distributor less and only use a dummy distributor as the oil pump. Drive but on recent inspection I noticed that the shaft only engages about 10mm in the bottom of the distributor when fully seated down , ordered up what I assumed would be a longer shaft and then stripped sump off etc to change . Seems like the new shaft ARP shaft is the same length and again only engages by about 10mm. Is this normal ? Shaft length is 7 1/2 inches long . Is this normal ? It’s not been an issue but never run in earnest . Also looking for an old distributor to use as a dummy . Current one seem to have some wear in the internal hex section . Retaining clip removed during trial install
Thanks .

 

[Mark H.]

Might want to try Jesel plus drive unit since you need to replace the distributor shaft anyway? 7.5” is correct. Make sure the drive floats up/down when the dist and pump are both installed. Supposedly some EFI drives are longer and will bind when the dist is installed. Also check the distance between from bottom of the gear to where the dist body contacts the block, should be 4.031”to 4.038”. I would also measure the block and make sure you have min. end play of 8-10 thou. End play of the shaft itself in the body .024 -.035.

 

[Robin Little]

Might want to try Jesel plus drive unit since you need to replace the distributor shaft anyway? 7.5” is correct. Make sure the drive floats up/down when the dist and pump are both installed. Supposedly some EFI drives are longer and will bind when the dist is installed. Also check the distance between from bottom of the gear to where the dist body contacts the block, should be 4.031”to 4.038”. I would also measure the block and make sure you have min. end play of 8-10 thou. End play of the shaft itself in the body .024 -.035.

Does 10mm of contact sound resonable then? Thought it would be more. Shaft floats up and down when both distributor and oil pump installed.

 

[Mark H.]

Might have an overly deep broach in the pump, but looks like you have 10mm or so on the Ford shaft? Can't think a 10mm deep hex would strip out of the dist bottom.

 

[Jerry Irwin]

I have 302 pump and dist shaft for sale.. ( new )
so was able to measure some bits..
may help you...
shaft is 7.5 inches
depth of hex hole in pump is 15 mm
so shaft engages into pump by 15 mm

Jerry