I have a 440 -6 engine with orig dual point dist. measures 3.90" from base to shaft tip @ bottom. it is only sitting about .080 " in the gear slot . there is around .300" in the gear . Is there any way to get that down in there to say .200" or so? it shows signs of riding on the edge of the shaft. I put in a new BRASS bushing . could that be in to far ? I don't see any room to drop it with dist. shims . if it is the shim , can I change that out without disassembly ?

4" is the std RB shaft length. You might weld/drill/tap the top of the intergear to add some material for the notch to engage. EDIT I just measured & it is 4&1/8"

Distributor original to engine? Take a look at the wear pattern on the end of the distributor shaft tang. How far in was it running? But as to your problem, it sounds like either the bushing in the block is too far in, the machined surface in the block that controls the height of the bushing is too low, or the gear is defective.

I am assuming you don't have a SB dual point that measures about 3.875".

if the gear on the intermediate shaft isn't pinned it can be pressed a little further down the shaft effectively raising the slot.

Not how that works. The gears are helically cut. This pushes the gear in one direction. Guess which way that is? Into the block where the bushing is. All messing with this is going to do is put the shaft deeper into the oil pump it won;t effectively raise the slot.

If you push the gear farther toward the pump won't it effectively shorten the oil pump engagement and increase the slot engagement? The gear rides the bushing, the shaft could be anywhere.

you guys need to get your thinking caps on. the gears position is fixed in relation to the block and i'm not talking about moving the shaft/gear relationship a couple feet. use your gray matter,...if you have any.

A bit brusque but accurate. Yes, the oil pump shaft engagement would decrease at the expense of increasing the distributor shaft engagement. The position of the gear remains fixed. What bothers me about situations like this is that out of the millions of B and RB made, why would this be necessary on this particular motor and none of the others? Moving the shaft would work but is this masking a more serious problem? Is this just a band-aid for something else?

I just measured my RB points dist & it is 4&1/8 not 4" like I posted earlier. For you to run the dual points & see how it performed (I hear they weren't no slouch back in the day) & it would be interesting, I wonder if you could pirate a lower shaft from a single points dist to get this resolved???

The RB shaft length is 4.00", the B shaft is 3.50".

The LA is 3.875" so the OP probably has a SB distributor.

thanks everyone ! I will figure it out .. I can tell you why this one is different from all the millions of them - its my luck - !! really glad for all the input . sometimes you really scratch your head over this stuff....at least I found it before it was two problems !

Small to big rotation is also opposite...ie no mechanical advance either...

Like John said, maybe a SB distributor. They look almost identical. Except the rotation differs.

RB vacuum advance moves the plate clockwise with vacuum, SB advance mechanism moves counter clockwise with vacuum. Check that first.

And what was it?

rapid Robert .....it was flawless on the dyno.. had it set up for 18 deg initial w all in at 2600 rpm...

^^^ that's good to hear. I think you needed some good news!