Oil pump/ distributor drive gear positioning

I hope the experts here on the club site will correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t think you need to index the oil pump/distributor drive gear. This is the way I’ve always done it. When the engine is assembled, turn it over until cylinder #4 on the drivers side (cylinder closet to the firewall is top dead center on the compression stroke. Take the distributor cap off. The rotor needs to be pointing to spark plug wire 4L. It probably won’t be. At this point remove the distributor and take out the distributor drive shaft. There is a slotted screw holding the upper part of shaft from turning on the tapped part of shaft. Loosen this screw so upper part of shaft is free to turn. Reinstall shaft and distributor. Now you are manually able to rotate the rotor to the 4L cylinder wire. Now again remove the distributor and drive shaft and TIGHTEN the slotted screw so upper part of shaft won’t turn. Reassemble. You now should be pretty close to being “in time” and should be able to fine tune when engine fires by adjusting and advancing or retarding the distributor position.

Hello all,

I’ve received the following query from my restoration guy. Can anyone please provide guidance?

What indexing is required when fitting the oil pump/distributer drive gear to enable the distributor rotor to point in a specific direction in relation to a certain position of the engine cycle (e.g., Pointing to front, parallel to crankshaft with engine at T.D.C. on compression stroke cylinder no. L1, or similar)?  Having a set position can have a dramatic effect on the neatness of plug wiring.