Oil in your distributor

Oil in Distributor

It's been a long time since I've faced this issue. To my recollection there are two causes for oil accumulation in the distributor:

• Someone lubricated the distributor cam and the lubricating pad with too much oil. The correction for this is just to remove the oil from the areas it's not supposed to be.
• The other cause of oil in the distributor is the result of crankcase lubricating oil "migrating" up from the engine below. The distributor cam and its shaft is rotated by a gear at the bottom being driven from a gear on the crankshaft in the engine.

To prevent oil from getting up into the distributor there is usually a rubber-like "O-ring" in the distributor [near the bottom] to seal the passage. If this O-ring is worn, then oil can get past it.

There may be other causes, but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.