In the old days we used to re-curve distributors on a Sun Distributor machine, which made it a little easier, but it can be done on the engine without too much trouble.
The first thing we did was cover the car fenders to avoid damage. Ya, pretty obvious but sometimes you get in a hurry to get to a problem. The next thing Jeremy did was remove the distributor cap with the wires attached and moved it out of the way. Now take a look at where the rotor is pointing. Mark exactly where it is pointing on the engine with chalk or something. Jeremy’s was pointing directly at the top of his temp sensor so we didn’t have to mark anything. Now if you are not familiar with your points distributor take a minute to look at it to familiarize yourself. It may be a good idea to take a picture of it straight down from the top.
The goal is to remove the points plate so we can get down to the advance mechanism underneath. I want to point out that the distributor has to come out either now or later if you have to rotate the advance limiter. If you take it out it’s easier to put it in a vise to hold it to remove the dist. cam retainer clip. Or, you can leave it in until you are all done and then lift the dist. enough to rotate it 180 degrees. You will see what I am talking about later. We left it in to change the advance.
Remove the rotor. Remove the wire from the coil and pull it through the inside of the distributor housing. You can remove the points but you don’t need to. If you have vacuum advance remove that small clip on the vacuum advance arm. Ours was missing but it stays on without it. Remove the two screws holding the vacuum advance canister. Yes, they are long screws. You can test the canister with a vacuum pump or simply sucking on the hose fitting and then put your tongue on it to hold the vacuum. If it won’t hold in it’s bad. Now remove the two outer screws on the edge of the plate. One of them the ground wire goes to. You can now lift the plate up and over the dist. cam to remove it.
There is problem with this after market points plate in this picture. Do you see it? We will talk about it later.
Wayne