I just pulled the rotor off my distributor, took a lot of effort. When you pull up the shaft slides up like it's spring loaded and can move back and forth some but seems to spring back down and click into place.

However, the rotor is up too high now and will break the distributor cap as-is. You can see that the wheel is higher than the pickup by a bit.


How do I reset this and get it back in place?

 

I figured it out and the car is now running again. The pulling and wiggling on the rotor to remove the old one, or possibly the slam into the tube that broke the rotor dislocated the centrifugal advance.

It was very obvious after removing the pickup and wheel, because one spring had no tension on it. I pulled up on the shaft, pushed the advance into place, and the shaft then settled right down. It was clearly correct after because I could see the advance throw out.

pickup wheel too high ( I didn't take pics of the advance )

 

Well done.

Next time, get a screwdriver, and PUSH DOWN on the star wheel as you pull UP on the rotor. Rocking the rotor is also a better way to free it up, but pushing down on that star wheel is a must.

Damage to the springs is a normal, and you have clearly dodged a bullet this time.

 

I actually ended up using a screwdriver anyway, since rocking and pulling got me nowhere.

Still a bit tricky since you have to pull up to use the screwdriver to avoid breaking the fragile clear/yellow plastic cover. I think it was just the amount of jerking around that initially caused an issue. Pulling straight up and then using a screwdriver worked quite easily.

Glad I didn't have to pull the whole dizzy. Also interesting to see my advance isn't stuck, which I've read is supposed to be extremely common. One of those things daily driving probably avoids.

Sometimes I feel like it's nice to get every little issue posted so someone else can stumble upon it later.

 

I wanted to clarify a bit on this issue in case someone could use it in the future. You can see here where I'm pointing to an obviously loose spring, so the weight is out of place.

The outer shafter is held on with a screw and plastic spacer that breaks, allowing the movement upward. In the second photo you can see how the weights could get in a position that would prevent the shaft from returning to it's lowest position.

Loose spring, obviously the weight isn't where it should be
The dizzy torn down showing the advance weights