Having a nightmare.

My cars been sitting good few years want to get it back on the road.

85 2.8 mpi v6

Need to replace distributor, inside rusted to hell. Got a brand new replacement sitting ready to go in.

Caps off, rotor arm is off. clamp round base is off.

It won't pull out!!

Base turns so not seized to base.

Tried turning, pulling even put a lever in under base plate and that came away from main body column.

Is there something else holding it or am I missing something.

 

There is nothing but the crow's foot around the base . If you have that off , and still can't pull the distributor out , then your distributor is being held in by caked , sludged oil . Yes , with this sludge you will still be able to turn it side to side , but due to it's presence in the ridges of the distributor base it won't allow it to pull up . In extreme cases of a sludged in distributor I have had success using a slide hammer to put repeated upward jolts on the distributor and break the "sludge ridge" that way .

Good luck with it

 

Will dig out the sliding hammer and give it a go.

Never had such hassle with a distributor before

 

Yep , a pain in the butt for sure . I will post up a photo of a distributor suffering from the very sludge ridge I'm talking about . See the rusty distributor on the right hand side of the photograph ? See the black , flaky substance in the ridge ? And how that is not seen on the clean distributor on the left ? It is that carbonized sludgy crap that is the only thing standing between you and success .

Again , I hope my method works for you , it removed that very sludgy unit in the photo

 

Hopefully get back to lock up tomorrow to have another go.

Thanks

 

Oh , and , PS

Don't throw the old one away , with a lil bit of home machine work , it can be turned into a nice "engine pre oiler" for if ya ever tear into a Pistons/rods/crankshaft rebuild .

Yes , this IS what became of the crusty , rusty unit in the above photograph !

 

First time I took the distributor out of the very similar 3.1L in my 91, it was a real PITA. Aside from the "sludge" that builds up on the shaft, the distributor is sealed to the intake manifold hole by way of a captured o-ring (not a flat gasket like a V8 uses). The rubber gets hardened and "welds" itself to the hole in the intake manifold. Yes, you can turn the distributor body, but the o-ring stays welded to aluminum intake. Makes for a rough uninstall.

Which reminds me- get a fresh distributor body O-ring to go with your new distributor. Don't even THINK about reusing the old one. Give it a good coating of oil before you shove the new distributor all the way home, too.

 

Hi Damon ,

I'm not playing "Mr. Expert" here or lookin to nit pick , but I just felt I needed to correct the fact that on our V6 engines , the distributor does not pass through the intake manifold as on the V8 engines , and simply plugs straight into the block itself . I will enclose a photo of the bare shortblock which shows the distributor's mounting position . The O ring advice is plenty good advice , as the old one does stick to the inside of the hole in the block , becomes flattened and heat baked , and must NEVER be reused . In fact , standard repair procedure is to never reuse gaskets/O rings for the leaks that will result . Believe it or not , our V6 distributor is actually in the flow of pressurized oil and scary amounts of oil can leak if the O ring is bad

 

Another shot , this one showing the pre oiler mounted in the distributor's mounting pad on the block .

 

Right you are. I'm going by memory that's at least 15 years old at this point. But battling the o-ring is the kind of thing you don't forget. What the distributor plugs into.... not so much, apparently.

 

If the distributor has an o-ring seal, get the replacement o-ring from GM.

Oil leakage at the distributor is a common issue with the 60-degree V6. Supposedly, GM changed the o-ring material way back when to affect a longer lasting seal. The new o-ring is a tan/brown color.

The oil pump drive in my FWD 3.1 in my Lumina (coil packs; no distributor but the bottom portion is still used to drive the oil pump) was a bear to get out. I ended up clamping a Vise-Grip onto the stub and used a crow foot to pry it out of the block.

A squirt of Berryman B-12 will help dissolve the varnish build up that seems to lock these things in place.