Greetings,

A friend of mine has a 1985 225 Dodge RAM. She's been driving it steadily and it sometimes just dies. We changed out the coil and moved it away from the dist (I thought it was overheating - This happened to me a few times on my '84 Pony) and also I removed the thermostat: Each time we did something, she reports she can go further. Now, the last time I was with her it broke down on the freeway (it ALWAYS does so less than a few kilometers of its destination - every time!) so I popped the hood and I decided to pop off the cap and have a look at the pickups, etc (in my other car, a 1987 Stellar, the bloody diamond star module always breaks) but to my surprise, the distributor started moving: I could even pull it up slightly. I pushed it back to its original location and the truck fired up again.

It seems to move around only after the engine has thoroughly warmed up. I took it apart and I looked (it is non-lean burn, with vacuum bulb) at the base, there's this clamped arm that seems to do absolutely nothing to hold the distributor in place - my thought is that there exists another piece that I need, looks like it is bolted into the distributor on one end (and would seemingly need a crazy tool or some serious wrist action, or oil filter removal) to adjust - but it is simply not there.

Does anyone know what it is called? Does anyone have one? Failing that, can someone please provide me with a template and I will simply make one?

Thanks,

-Jed

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1985 Dodge RAM 225

From your description sounds like you have lost the bolt that holds the distributer to the hold down plate. you will have to pull the distributer to get to it. The purpose of the bolt was to allow the distributer to be have an adjustment to get the distributer into center of adjustment slot.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Hi Jed118. and welcome to the forum.

On some distributors the adjusting plate looked like the one in the exploded view to the left, in some the oblong bolt hole is closed, not open on one side like here, and later models had a circular plate, and a separate hold-down arm. You can follow the link to an earlier thread by clicking this text (all red text in the forum are links). There you will find photos of both types, look towards the bottom of the page.

Olaf.

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Aspenized

The 1985 distributor has the later version of the distributor hold down assembly.

Here are the two styles side-by-side:



Here are the component parts of the later (more preferable) style:



Here is how they fit together assembled on the motor (use your imagination for the engine block):



Please note that I am missing the o-ring that goes under the plate on the distributor. If you leave this off you get a BIG oil leak.

The metal u shaped thing clamps the ring bolted to the bottom of the distributor to the engine block holding it steady.

I don't know the exact date of the switch in hold-down styles, but I believe it was in the late 70s. Note that the distributor showing the later style is a lean-burn distributor. The ring is a slant only piece (I think, maybe a v-8 would work), but could probably be easily fabricated from flat stock of metal. The clamp from a v-8 *might* work, but try and find a slant six one first.

Here is a link to mmsacc-stainless.com that shows different models. Hope you find what you need.

Olaf.

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Aspenized

I have the BB hold down and you'd spend a lot of hours with a grinder hogging down a nice peice to make it work...The small block one would be similar...Someone here should have the right part for beer money...
Worst case scenario, I have a fair amount of the "early" plates (Reed's pic right hand side distributor/Olaf's FSM diagram) with slots and would be willing to mail one to you.

-D.Idiot

Thanks for all the replies!

I need the part on the left (or Reed's second picture, 3 piece one - middle piece) and I do not see this piece on the Engine Accessories link provided.

Does anyone have this piece? Or, can I change to the other type? Looks simpler to install and adjust.

Oh, and I know very well about that seal around the collar of the dist. neck... One crumbled out on my 4G63 engine last year (dist in head, fortunately) and I lost 2 quarts of oil and undercoated the car on a trip from NYC to Toronto...

I also noticed that the gear driving the dist is nylon, is this generally a problem?

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1985 Dodge RAM 225

You can use either type of hold down clamp, the ring type will be simpler to adjust. The nylon gear is ok just will get hard after years of being in the motor.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing