Five Minute Fix 12 - Distributor Swap 1993 Ford F250 302 5.0

Welcome! In this video my brother and I quickly swap out the distributor(dizzy) in his 1993 Ford F250. The old one was quite rusty and of questionable fit and function as it was not original to the truck. In this video I cover how to remove and install a new dizzy in a way that keeps your base timing. I apologize for the wind noise. That comes from a fan that we use to keep from overheating during the hot summer months here in Florida. I will remember to cut it off during filming segments so the audio quality is a bit better.
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/ mazdab3k
WARNING! This video is for entertainment purposes only. Do the actions outlined in this video at home at your own risk.

[@gabe5360]

Thx bud, I appreciate you for making it simple!

[@MazdaB3K]

Happy to help. Make sure when you stab the new dizzy that you have the rotor pointing exactly where it was prior in reference to the spark towers. If you do that it should work just fine.

[@applesaucepineapples5347]

Ive watched other videos and only one guy has said you have to worry about getting the oil pump drive lined up aswell as the teeth on the distributor. Did you have trouble with that?

[@MazdaB3K]

It can be annoying. What I found is once you get the drive lined up and locked in you can "walk" the rotor around until you get it pointing roughly where you need it to be. I believe you can also manually move the oil drive before installation so you don't have to do that, but I've never tried to do that myself.

[@betolp277]

Hello! My f150 4.9 run great, but after 10 minutes the spark seems to be very weak, and cause a failure on the combustion process. I replaced the ignition coil, spark cables, and the only thing left is the distributor. So, you think that is the solution to my problem? Greetings! From 🇲🇽 (sorry for my bad english)

[@MazdaB3K]

I need a little more information before I can offer an educated guess. What year is your F150? Fuel injected or uses a carburetor?

[@betolp277]

@@MazdaB3K it a 93, fuel injected, the thing is that i cannot find the distributor around my city.

[@MazdaB3K]

The first thing you need to do is figure out if you have a spark problem or a sensor problem. If you don't have one, I would buy a spark tester, something like what's in the link below: www.amazon.com/Lisle-20610-Inline-Spark-Tester/dp/B0002STSC6/ref=sr_1_4?crid=213XYTH2JP56Z&keywords=spark%2Bplug%2Btester&qid=1691668934&sprefix=spark%2Bplug%2Btester%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-4&th=1 Connect that inline with a spark wire or your coil wire. Start your truck when the engine is cold. Watch the light. As the engine warms up, does the light change? Slower? Weaker? Stays the same? If the spark stays the same regardless if the engine is cold or hot, you probably don't have a spark problem. If it does change, you might have a bad ground on the coil or possibly a cracked distributor cap.

[@MazdaB3K]

There is also something called an ignition module that your engine may have that can go bad from heat exposure. I need to do some research to verify that.

[@brannonsanford5884]

What do you do if you don't remember the direction the rotor was facing? Do you have to turn the engine to top dead center?

[@MazdaB3K]

Yes. Normally you would rotate the crank by hand until you get back on your timing mark. However... assuming the timing mark on the balancer is good, you'll either be where you need to be for cylinder 1, or you'll be 180 degrees off. Normally you put a straw or a piece of wire in through the spark plug hole of cylinder 1 so you'll know when you are on a compression stroke and use the timing mark that comes around on that stroke so you won't be 180 degrees off. When you do all of this make sure to disconnect the SPOUT jumper so that the computer won't try to advance timing on you.

[@pedrohernandez5434]

good job

[@MazdaB3K]

Thanks!

[@MayorArmandWilliamsSr]

Great explanation😊

[@MazdaB3K]

Glad it was helpful! Make sure you clearly mark where the rotor was pointing before you pull it.

[@rickvandecarr9342]

I have a question my timing gear came off the distributor

[@MazdaB3K]

The gear at the bottom of the shaft? Never seen that happen. I always thought those were press fit on. Did you find sign of a missing snap ring or something like that?

[@rickvandecarr9342]

@@MazdaB3K how do you set the ignition timing cover distributor cap I pulled all the spark plug wires off the cap like an idiot I don’t know how to work on a distributor man never done it

[@MazdaB3K]

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to do this. 1. Look at the front of the engine. Behind the main crank pulley should be a harmonic balancer. On that balancer should be timing marks. There should also be some kind of pointer above the harmonic balancer you can align the timing marks to. Providing the balancer is correct and has not slipped, turn the crank until the pointer is pointing at 10 degrees BTC, or Before Top Dead Center. For most Ford engines, that should be good enough base timing to get the engine to run. Meanwhile, after getting that aligned you need to stab the dizzy. Stab the dizzy with the rotor pointing at cylinder number 1, best that you can. On Fords, the cylinders are laid out thus: 4 8 3 7 2 6 1 5 When looking from the front of the vehicle towards the firewall. After you get the dizzy retaining bolt tight, but loose enough to move the dizzy around, get the rest of your spark wires on. Before starting, you will need to disable the computer advance. This is done by removing the jumper on the spout connector located near the airbox. Now attempt to start. It will either start, or it's going to backfire. If it backfires you are 180 degrees off and will need to adjust the dizzy accordingly. 2. If you can't trust the balancer, or you can't see timing marks, you are going to have to go old school. Remove the spark plug from cylinder number 1 and insert something stiff that is long enough to rest on the top of the cylinder inside. After doing this, start turning the crank bolt until the stiff item is about to fall out, meaning cylinder number 1 is at the top of it's travel (Top Dead Center, or TDC). Back the cylinder down just a hair, which will put it around 10 degrees BTDC. After that, put the spark plug back in, point the dizzy, reconnect your wires, disconnect the spout and attempt to start. If you get backfires, you are 180 off and you will need to pull the spark plug again and rotate 180 from when the dizzy is pointing at cylinder number 1 to get the correct timing. I know this is a giant wall of text, but in practice this is very doable. I have a video on the spout connector that you can reference if you don't know what to look for there.

[@MazdaB3K]

After doing all of that, you will need a timing light to do the fine tuning to get around 10 BTDC. Then you put the spout connect back in to turn computer advance timing back on and you are good to go.

[@albertsnyder941]

Are you referring to cylinder number one on the hat of the cap,or the physical cylinder on the engine? Thx

[@rickvandecarr9342]

Hey man