Is this a new or rebuilt distributor? Or did you take the shaft out of the housing? It doesn't really matter, but the shaft should be lubricated. Chassis grease was the standard for filling the grease cup, but if the cup is fairly empty, you might have to fill it and turn in a couple of turns to force the grease into the bushings, etc. It sounds like there is something amiss with the assembly. Did you remove the vacuum control from the housing? If so, you may have installed the control in the wrong place and it is binding against the housing when you tighten the retaining bolt- the octane selector bolt. Remove the octane selector bolt and see if the distributor turns freely- it should. Also, loosen the large fillister-head screw behind the distributor that clamps the vacuum control to the housing. That should let the distributor turn freely in the engine.
If the distributor turns freely in the engine when you have all the hardware loose, let the distributor rest in the oil pump (it has engaged the oil pump, hasn't it?), then snug the octane selector bolt at its zero point, then tighten the fillister-head screw on the vacuum control clamp. There should be a space between the top of that clamp and the top of the machined surface that goes into the engine. I don't remember a specific distance for that space, but something around 1/4" or 3/8", I think is typical. Maybe someone else has a distributor to look at and can give a good measurement.
Harvester
