distcheck fails (missing files)

APOLOGY.  I've spent hours on this, and about an hour in google trying
to find an answer, so I hope it's OK to ask this here...

BACKGROUND. I have a project (http://gri.sf.net) that I'm trying to
convert from Make to automake.  I've got "make" working, and "make
dist" as well.

PROBLEM. However, "make distcheck" fails.  What it does is to create a
subdir called "=build" in the dist directory (named "gri-2.12.5"), and
it inserts Makefiles there, and subdirs there, but no sources.  So,
when it tries a build, it fails.

QUESTION. Is my problem something simple and commonly reported?  I'm
betting that it's necessary for me to use some extra commands of some
sort in my Makefile.am or configure.ac files ... but I'm at a loss as
to how to find this out.

APOLOGY. Note: I've not included sample code, because the project is
pretty big (e.g. a 5 minute compile on a pentium-4/1.8GHz machine).
What I'm hoping is that this is a common bug that will ring bells
without further details.

PS. I'd love to use automake.  Help!

-- 
Dan E. Kelley, Associate Professor                phone:(902)494-1694
Oceanography Department, Dalhousie University       fax:(902)494-2885
Halifax, Nova Scotia                         mailto:Dan.Kelley@xxxxxx 
Canada B3H 4J1   http://www.phys.ocean.dal.ca/~kelley/Kelley_Dan.html