'96 GC Distributor Installation and Timing

[Jamuel]

Hi,

I pulled the distributor on my 1996 JGC 5.2L 318 V8 to replace a leaky O-ring. I thought I had marked the the relation of the distrib body to engine block but my mark ended up only being on the distrib (didn't realize the collar was part of the distrib). Anyway so after replacing the O-ring I re-stabbed the distrib shaft correctly (was easy to remember the direction the rotor was pointing) but I didn't have any idea what the exact distrib body position should be. I understand that ignition timing is automagic if the distributor body is within 15 degrees of alignment--and I feel like I'm in that ballpark BUT the engine is missing and when I pull the codes I see random cylinder misfires. It starts out only being a 1 or 2 cylinders but if I run long enough (20 minute drive) eventually all of the cylinders will check in as misfiring.

The engine kind of has a "glug-glug" sound as it's revved and seems to be missing some power--it definitely doesn't sound like it did pre-distrib fix. Haynes says that if you lose the distrib body alignment that you need to take it to the dealer for a fuel synchronization reset with specialized equipment.

Does that make sense/my only recourse or is there something else I can do? Is something else the matter?

For what it's worth I've tried setting the positioning the crankshaft to TDC for Cylinder #1 and then used the camshaft position sensor ring (located in the distributor) to align the rotor with the c.p.s. ring and by supposition the distributor body (since the cam shaft position ring is "keyed" to the distributor body.) And I've tried fishing for the correct position but rotating the body but nothing seems to help.

Any help would be *greatly* appreciated.

Cheers,

JPS