Do not fear having to time your M38A1. It is simplicity itself. You can use any 12 volt inductive timing light. You merely replace the number one wire temporarily with a piece of spark plug cable, or else you can undo the #1 wire at the plug, and install a 5" or so long piece of wire from the end of the original supressed wire into the spark plug.
You then only hook your timing light onto one battery so you get 12 volt, put the inductive pickup over the regular wire, and time the Jeep. When you get the timing right, and if the wire inlet for the distributor is still in a bad position, then move on to my next suggestions.
So now that that's over, let's talk about your options when the distributor is too close to the alternator.
You can remove the distributor, then drop the oil pump, turn the gear clockwise one tooth, and re-install it into the block. Once you install your distributor, it will now be further away from the alternator.
The other option is to use a spare M151A2 distributor housing, as they had the wire coming out at an angle, which worked better for the M38 family.
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