Oil pump shaft position, is there one?

This is for my Brother's '66 289 Mustang....I posted here figureing I'd get help sooner here


Ok, is there a specific way that the oil pump shaft should be sitting? For example, on Chevy motors (sorry lol ), the oil pump shaft needs to sit a certain way (I use a small crowbar, and use the curved lug nut "socket" end as my guide/pointer and turn the shaft until it points to #5 I/E valves), so that when you drop the distributor in (and #1 piston at TDC), the rotor will point straight down the middle and the ol pump/distributor timing will be set.

Is there anything like this for Ford? Or do you just install the oil pump shaft, drop the distributor, and that's it?

Now for the "background" story haha...

The original distributor has the points/condenser set up on it. Well the plate the the points set up bolts down to is very loose! I had a spare Ford distributor sitting around that was a little old and dirty, but the plate was in better condition then the original's, so I installed it.

I lined the original one up, made sure I marked the placement of it and dropped the spare one in. Everything seemed well, but for some reason the car ran pretty rough and began to sputter and miss on take off. I checked and double checked the timing and points gap, and all seemed well. I ended up decideing to pull the distributor and found that it was stuck! After a good tugging the distributor poppd out and brought the shaft out with it! I eventually dropped the shaft down into the pan and towed the car home! Hahaha Alls well tho, I dropped the pan, pulled the oil pump and installed it correctly, and this time with the retainer clip and a one piece oil pan gasket it!

I inspected the distributor and found that there was a pretty ugly gash on the distributor gear and figured that was the reason the car didn't want to run right. My brother ended up buying a brand new replacement distributor from Auto Zone, but that miss/sputter is still there!?

What do you guys think is the cause of this? Is it possible that like Chevy, the oil pump timing is off? Is it possible that the spare distributor with the gashed gear scored the cam gear which is now allowing the timing to jump around advancing and retarding when in use? Also, this car was sooo stock that it still had the bone stock original smog set up on it (it's an original Cali car)! Well when the motor is revved up, it makes this really odd noise, kinda like a "snorkeling" noise. If I have time, I'll try to video it and post it up in a few days or so.....that is if anyone would like to hear what I'm talking about.