Jammed Engine and Stuck Lucas Distributor in V12 Engine

Let’s start by stating this all feels self inflicted…

MY 1986 V12 XJ-SC Cabriolet was up and running, but had a slight miss-fire so I replaced the Lucas distributor cap and the Rotor Arm. When I pulled the old Rotor Arm off it raised the shaft a few millimeters and I tried to push it back down when I pushed the new Arm on but it didn’t quite go back and I left it like that – here’s the cause.

Then when I’d put everything back together and turn the key to crank the engine, the engine jammed up (presumably on the incorrectly located distributor shaft).

I managed to turn the engine back a couple of degrees on the crankshaft pulley, hoping to unwind the jam.

So, I tried to remove the distributor, working on the premise that it might unjam on the engine as I pulled it out. I discovered all the advance mechanism was broken, presumably due to being out of position when I cranked the engine. Removing the distributor has proved extremely hard to achieve, and basically I’ve ended up where shown in the photo.

I can rotate the last remaining part of the distributor casing (very very stiff) by leveraging the broken bits of case (another self inflicted issue) and the engine bolt (to the right of the picture).

I figured that as I can rotate the case a few millimetre then the seal is broken and out the distributor will come – no such luck.

I’m now completely stuck. The casing and the remains of the shaft are basically stuck, and the engine is still very much jammed (verified by gently rotating the engine the correct way and backwards on the crankshaft pulley, rather than attempting to crank the engine again).

Doooooooooooomed

Laurence