[h0wb0y]

Oh - I am not upset by the shoestring budget - I just figured I would stress that because I really did not want to hear advice that suggested just to scrap it all if I didn't have to.

I have not looked up the stampings on the block - so I am not sure if it is original or not (I know - shame on me). But I suppose there cant be too much harm in trying to remove them together, right? As long as I don't really force anything I suppose.

I assumed it is an aluminum distributor - given the color and the fact that the pipe wrench dug in some deep gouges with not much effort at all.

Looks like I will be pulling the oil pan and all of the lower guts and trying to find signs of corrosion.

I worked with quite a few motors that had been sitting in fields outside in Wyoming for years at a time - and I never found one that had cancered any more than some mild boring and honing could not solve. Only the ones that had been run to the point of welding the pistons to the block were not fixable - but now you are scaring me a little.

There is NO turning this motor (even by attaching a little plate I fabbed up and attached to the front of the harmonic balancer.

The rotor does turn easily just a bit - maybe just like 1/2" clockwise - and when it does, I can see the part of the shaft under the rotor that looks like a nut raise up about 1/16" or 1/8" - as if it was on an upward spiral. Then it stops. If I let it go, it appears to be almost spring loaded and it returns to its original position. I really did not think that was a sign of anything - other that if I tried to turn that rotor much more I would snap it.

I am pretty sure it is points - because it definitely does not have HEI.

The distributor can be sacrificed if need be for the greater potential good of the engine.