Distributor

[OntarioMax]

I have an oil leak and thought it was entirely the rear main seal. Is there a oil seal behind the ignition distributor as well?

 

[Kjets On a Plane]

Presumably 7/9 w/head mounted distributor? If so, yes.

Bit tedious to reseal those, but brickboard has a good FAQ on them.
Shame it's so labor intensive to install a 240 aux shaft and dist and be rid of that leaky crab-cab thing thereafter!

 

[945T]

If you're lucky it's just the o-rings, but after all these years the shaft seal is also likely gone, so best to plan on getting a complete distributor seal kit. FCPEuro currently has the full Skandix seal kit (1027507) in stock, with seal, o-rings, fibre and metal washers. IPD has a seal kit with just the seal and o-rings. RockAuto occasionally has a seal kit, which is where I got my last one. Note that these are special green Viton high temp o-rings and the smaller o-ring is the same o-ring used on the oil separator box. The washers are optional unless you damage the fibre washer during disassembly or manage to lose one of the metal washers (or one was previously missing).


It's not that hard to overhaul the distributor, but there are a few things you need to know. As Kjets said, it's fully described in the 700/900 FAQ which can be found here on the UK Volvo Club website
https://www.volvoclub.org.uk/faq/VolvoB230ShaftSeal/DistributorShaftSeal.html
(the brickboard.com website has been defunct for a few years now)

A few things to note:

• After removing the distributor cap and rotor, before loosening the distributor to remove it, scribe a mark across the flange so you can put it back in the same orientation. Doesn't hurt to use a mirror so you can see how off-center the screws are in the slots or take a picture with a camera.
  
  
• The tricky bit is knowing how to remove the shaft pin. Note that it's a tapered pin and only drives out one way. Make an educated guess which is the narrow end of the pin. Using an appropriately sized drift, give it a few light taps to try driving it out in that direction. If it doesn't move then try the other direction. Repeat alternating ends of the pin hitting a little harder each time until the pin starts to move. Use a drift (pin punch), not a center punch, and keep it perpendicular!!! If you mushroom the end of the pin then it can be extremely difficult to get out. Some have had to give up and end up buying a new distributor.
  
  
• In the FAQ article, John shows a home made version of the Volvo special tool to hold the distributor with a notch to allow the pin to be driven out. You can do it without the special tool as long as you're half careful. I just use a bench vise with the jaws slightly open, but you'll need an assistant to hold the distributor on the end of the vise.