I screwed up when I pulled my distributor this morning and didn't mark where the rotor was.... So now it's back in the car and I can't start it. How do I realign the distributor??:gt: ou:
Should be easy enough to pull the driver's side valve cover and rotate the engine to TDC noting that both valves are closed. Then reinstall the distributor so that the rotor points to the number one spark plug wire on your cap. Naturally, you have to compensate for the gear engagement so that the rotor is in the right position when the distributor is fully seated. You will probably have to rotate your oil pump shaft with a long screwdriver so that it lines up properly with the distributor. If you have an old cap, I recall that Chris Blair posted a tip on drilling out the number one wire post in the cap to make it easy to see if you're in the right place.
Adam, remove no. 1 spark plug, cover hole with screwdriver handle or equivalent, disconnect coil lead, crank motor, note position of rotor when no. 1 hole whistles, adjust accordingly. Good Luck, Hope this helps Taylor
Adam, Yes, pull the #1 plug. Then bump the engine until the air blows out of the plug hole. Then align your timing mark on the balancer at 0* on the timing cover. The aim the rotor at your #1 wire in the cap. A good way to drop in the dist. is to use a long screwdriver to rotate the oil pump shaft so it aligns with the roll pin in the bottom of the dist. The dist should drop in all the way very easily. If it doesn't pull it back out and move the oil pump shaft a little more until it drops in. Bet you won't make this mistake again! I usually drap a piece of 2" masking tape across the engine bay, then I mark on it where the rotor is pointing and where the vacuum advance nipple is pointing. That way, not only do I get the dist. dropped in correctly, but I'll be really close as far as the timing goes. At LEAST I know it'll start without having to spin the dist all over the place to get it to fire.
heheh... definitely correct on not making this mistake again. I just got back from saving my sister on the side of the road. Her new Tiburon found a curb a little too hard last night and one of the plastic pieces in her wheel well was rubbing really bad. The cordless Sawzall took care of it nicely:Brow: Time to go putz with the car.
Holy crap! My car runs better than I ever thought it would!!!! It doesn't even think about missing at low idle. Best smooth 455 I've ever felt. I can hardly tell it's running now. Thanks to the folks on this board who have helped my out with this particular nightmare project:beer IgnitionMan Dave told me to make the vac advance stop - which was the biggest issue I had with the miss. Then all the folks who walked me through the distributor alignment problem... THANKS!
vacume advance stop...? Adam...what do you mean by making the vac advance stop? ...or do you mean 2 disconnect the vac-advance and run it all mechanicly...? o No:
"vacuum advcance stop" is basically a small metal plate that I attach to the vac advance cannister to keep the advance from going past a certain point. The one I installed stops the vac advance at 10*. Here are a couple pics...................... The "stop" is the small metal thing with 2 screws attaching it to the unit.
The screws do not protrude past the bottom of the unit, allowing for proper clearance when it is installed in the distributor. Dave did a great job explaining proper clearances and instructions on how to do this. ALthough I did break 2 screws and 2 more drill bits trying to tighten them into the unit.
ok..I got it now.....so you were getting a miss when your vac-andance was advancing over 10 degrees..? ...btw ..dont forget 2 pay that bill...late fees can kill ya..:Brow: ...
It was advancing it about 30 degrees...more than the mechanical 12 degrees. So I was getting like 40 degrees of advance at idle. Now I am getting the 12 mechanical and 10 vacuum at idle. Smoothest idle I've ever felt this car run. Oh yeah, that is my hospital bill from a few weeks ago. I have another one sitting here for about $2500.:gt:
...40* at idle... 40 deg at idle.....where is your vac advance hose getting its vacume from...?? ..way back I remember working on a car that had an adjustable thingamajigger on the vac advance for that same purpose.....I think it was a foriegn car..or was it a ford...? btw...hospital bills can kill ya...
full manifold vacuum - as instructed by IgnitionMan himself. I used ported vac for a while, but at idle, it gets NO vacuum. So it's worthless to even hook it up if you put it on ported vacuum....unless it has EGR. I am pulling about 20" of vacuum at idle.
Oh, man...I brfain faded yet again, didn't insert into the instructions to pull the pull pin down and out of the groove and set it next to the mounting bar, on the outside of it, to drill the holes on a piece of wood. I see the drill marks on the pull rod, sorry for that. Still, looks like you did good. Glad to hear it is doing well again.
OK, I think I got this figured out, so bear with me......For the best performance the vacuum advance needs to stop advancing the same time the mechanical advance kicks in. For this to happen the mechanical advance must have a set of springs that make it affective so it won't retard when you accelerate with manifold vacuum????????uzzled:
Dan, Mechanical advance operates independently from vacuum advance. The best way to set up a distributor is to work with the mechanical advance first. Get your mechanical advance in as soon as possible without detonation by substituting springs and roadtesting the car. Then add 8-10 degrees of vacuum advance and check for part throttle ping. You want the vacuum advance to go away quickly when you punch the throttle, otherwise you'll get detonation/ping. The factory settings didn't let full mechanical advance in until about 4600 RPM. So at cruising RPM, you probably had 3/4's of your total mechanical in, and the factory used alot more vacuum degress to make up the difference. With a modified mechanical advance, it's all in at cruising RPM, so you need less vacuum degrees. Full manifold vacuum advance will let you idle with more advance and give you more economy at light loads, but will go away at high loads(retard). The timing of those events matters little, since your mechanical is set up for the most power.
