The dreaded clunk

[WConley]

^^^^  This!!  Good advice from Ken 

[wayne]

I like the locktite idea

[katink]

I had that problem, the retainer wouldn't hold the shaft in the block because it was poorly made and the shaft was stuck rather well in the end of the distributor.  So after one dropped shaft and a couple of 'Oh @#$%&!' moments and the resulting hacks to get the shaft out successfully I found a different shaft.  Milodon makes a fat shaft that will not pass through the hole in the block when pulling the distributor.  No help to you at this point in time, sorry.  But the stamped keeper is a failure point.  The fat shaft is not.  As far as magnets, I tried to move a shaft around in the rear sump pan with a number of big magnets after I had the engine out and the pan in hand.  Did not budge.  Your results may vary.

[Blueoval77]

CMon now Royce , you arent being completely honest here I think. Now I have done this on several occasions over the years and its never just a clunk !! Its always a "Clunk" followed by a string of words that just come out all on their own.......     

The main issue with leaving them is that "In my experience" they dont fall all the way. They get stuck in the vertical position and the crank dispatches them when you crank it the first time. No , not the end of the world for sure but on a good engine its not a road you want to go down. Ive never had it happen on an FE but had it happen plenty of times on small blocks where people didnt put the clip back on or broke a shaft and installed the new one top down...

[cammerfe]

Another possibility is to go to an engine management system that uses the COP approach. Adding a dry sump makes it possible to do away with the diz altogether, and the internal pump also. Voila!!! You'll never drop another hex oil pump driveshaft. Put a cover on the diz hole after making sure to deal with the potential for an internal oil leak.

KS

[Royce]

Well Blue you caught me on that one.  A very long string of expletives including the letters M F and C. It's all good now though.

[TimeWarpF100]

Of the oil pump drive shaft falling into the pan.. Last idiot in this engine did not install the retainer washer and just as the distributor was to clear the manifold it dropped out... Anyone have any clever ways to retrieve it without removing the pan or front cover?  Leave it at the bottom of the pan?

What pan are you using? I have pulled plenty out thru the drain plug hole.

[SAcobra427]

Not sure if this will work for you, depends on how the shaft is setting in there but I had this happen to me once and I easily retrieved the shaft by slipping a drinking straw from like Mc Donalds or Burger King down over it and pulled back out.