Success! Thanks for the advice given.
Everything went well on this operation - even easier than I had thought.
I first learned that these distys turn CW, and not CCW as stated in many other Ford sites.
After pulling the cap, I lined up the disty rotor to the #1 plug wire tower by bumping the starter and then turning the crank bolt (7/8") a little more to perfectly line up the #1 reluctor tooth right in the middle of the pickup. I marked the reluctor tooth, the #1 tower location, the base of the disty at the casting mold mark and lastly the block itself. I made darn SURE I took the ratchet out of the crank bolt... :surprised:
I pulled the clamp bolt (11/16", under the PVC crankcase hose), removed disty clamp and slowly pulled out the old disty with very slight short twists, watching where the reluctor turned when the gears unmeshed. It went CW a hair over 1/2 a tooth.
I pulled it out straight the rest of the way and moved it to the edge of the block (without tilting) and removed it.
Naturally one would want to tilt it away from the block, BUT, if the oil pump shaft was in the disty, it could have easily fallen into the block.
I attached a picture of the disty hole; the "no-zone" obviously near the drive gear. The other side is just a puddle of oil.
The engine teardown section in the manual :read: had a good picture of the oil pump shaft and retainer. The retainer is nothing more than a C-clip that is near the middle of the ~3" long shaft and fits between the oil pump and the block, keeping the shaft in place when the disty is pulled. If the engine has not been torn down before, then the clip ~should~ be there.
I marked the new disty just like the old one, noting #1 firing position, and smeared engine oil on the disty O-ring.
Getting it back in CORRECTLY was the hardest part. It does not just drop in - it is more of a drop in, engage gear, twist body, push down some (straight), twist more, cuss a bit, engage the gear push and twist more, and cuss a lot because now it is seated but half a reluctor tooth advanced! :nocool:
Okay, gently twist it out and try again. Repeat the above, with even more pushing twisting and lots more cussing, because now it is finally home and it is half a reluctor tooth retarded! :mad:
Third time is a charm, right? Well, after repeating most of the above, it went in, aligned just a hair off and that could be easily adjusted out. :lol: I think getting the oil pump shaft to align was most of the problem.
I installed the clamp, vac hoses, rotor, cap (with wires falling off and rust falling out!) and air cleaner. A complete tune-up will be done this spring.
Moment of truth - engine fired right up and ran smooth! :hypno: :hypno: After 10 minutes of warm up, I got out the timing light and set to 6*BTDC with vac advance disconnected and plugged. I was about 4* off - not bad. With the timing light, I bumped the throttle and verified centrifugal advance was working.
After setting timing, idle speed and mixture, engine ran great - even smoother than before. :amazed: Disty bolt was tightened and everything reassembled and connected.
Car ran great at idle, around the neighborhood for 10 minutes, and even for the 20 minute drive home. I think she is fixed now!
I confirmed the main source of problem was the pickup coil failing when heated up. I somewhat verified this by taking AC voltage measurements when cold, and slowly heated it by pouring hot water on the pickup coil. Voltage was way less when hot.
Although I could have replaced just the pickup coil, a reman disty was the same price as the pickup. Also, the disty shaft was loosey-goosey - at least 0.015" side-side slop when cold. I think it is was a reman unit installed 53K miles ago. The original lasted over 100K and was replaced out of preventive maintanence. It was due and should last another 50K or so!
:fastcar: