How do you install distributor drive on 1600 bug?

Answer 1

The distributor drive is a little shaft with a gear on the end of it that meshes with a gear on the crankshaft.

Your first task is to be sure there's not one in there already. Stick your distributor in the hole where it goes, shove it in as far as it will go, and turn the rotor. If it meshes with something in there, you've got a distributor drive. Tighten the distributor clamp after you static-time the engine, and be happy.

If you DON'T have one...

remove the right-side valve cover. Turn the engine over with a wrench until number 1 cylinder (the one to the front of the car) is in firing position--both valves closed.

Get a distributor drive, grease it up (it probably won't go in unless you do), and put it in the hole where it goes. Don't stick it in all the way. Put a rotor in your distributor, mesh the end of the distributor shaft with the distributor driveshaft--it only fits one way--and turn the rotor until the long, narrow end, which is where the fire comes from, is pointing at you. Now push the distributor down until it stops.

If you have lived a clean life, the teeth on the distributor drive meshed with the teeth on the crank, and the distributor bottomed out like it was supposed to. No one gets that lucky, so just move the rotor back and forth a little and it will drop right in.