14-07-2024, 12:33 AM
To further endorse Ruairidh's recommendation, a lot of later vehicles (those that still use distributors, that is!) use roll pins for just this purpose.
The usual workshop manual advice is to fit these pins such that the direction of (shear) force applied to it is such that the pin isn't constantly being 'squeezed' open & closed. Thus, for the distributor application the split in the pin is on the axis of the drive gear rotation ("E-W"), and not on the longitudinal axis ("N-S") of the shaft, and for (say) a gear shift fork application the split in the pin is on line with the shift rail. Having said all that, I've often seen them fitted incorrectly in both applications seemingly without ill effect.
The pins are nominally sized, so that a 1/8 pin is supposedly suitable for use in a 1/8 hole, but the manufacturers seemingly have different ideas about the amount of allowable compression of their own pins, so the unfitted ODs will vary. And you may have to put your own chamfer on them to ease fitting.
RuairidhRuard Ruairidh
The usual workshop manual advice is to fit these pins such that the direction of (shear) force applied to it is such that the pin isn't constantly being 'squeezed' open & closed. Thus, for the distributor application the split in the pin is on the axis of the drive gear rotation ("E-W"), and not on the longitudinal axis ("N-S") of the shaft, and for (say) a gear shift fork application the split in the pin is on line with the shift rail. Having said all that, I've often seen them fitted incorrectly in both applications seemingly without ill effect.
The pins are nominally sized, so that a 1/8 pin is supposedly suitable for use in a 1/8 hole, but the manufacturers seemingly have different ideas about the amount of allowable compression of their own pins, so the unfitted ODs will vary. And you may have to put your own chamfer on them to ease fitting.
RuairidhRuard Ruairidh