FOUND IT!

I will tell you the story if you guys keep your anti-newbie ego comments to yourself.

OK.....I pulled the distributor out because I was going to make sure it was set right and re-time it. Anyways, I discovered all the teeth were sheered off the distributor gear. OUCH! was my reaction. I figured I would pull the valve cover to see what the heck is going on. All looked good and the cam gear was in fine shape.......COOL. But what would cause the damage. Well as I was fishing the metal teeth out of the oil pool around the hidden timming cover bolt I realized what happend. When I re-installed the cover, I missplaced the hidden bolt that goes in the oil pool. So I bought a new one at the auto store and it was maybe two teeth too long so I added ONE THIN WASHER to make up for the extended threads. BAD IDEA! The distributor gear didn't have enough clearence for the new bolt with the washer and it broke all the teeth off. Well, there was one tooth left and it was hitting the bolt at every rotation and that my friends was the knocking sound in the distributor.

So I put the right size bolt in and a new distributor gear and off I go.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate all the responces. Unfortunately this one I just had to discover myself. I hope it will help educate someone who is doing this "evil" repair!

Whoops! At least the mistake was a fairly cheap one. Then there was the time I put the newly rebuilt head onto the newly rebuilt block and bent a couple of valves by turning the camshaft while some of the pistons were at TDC. Doh! Fortunately the rebuilder bailed me out of my mistake...:rasta:

A trick that I learned a long time ago from an old mechanic, as you build an engine, after each step, turn the engine over by hand with a wrench. Put the crank in, turn it over one full turn or more, put the pistons and rods in; turn it over one full turn or more, etc.:rasta: