That's a good idea. However, the issue comes and goes. For example, pulling into my parking spot at home today I sat there in Drive and at idle it would not miss, but maybe in a couple days it will go to missing at idle. Also, it misses at high RPMs, sometimes. My points aren't buring and it's the same set I've had in there for a couple years. I replaced the points and the issue went away for a little while and came right back. The problem hasn't been bad enough for me to go any deeper than this, but I tried looking for all the obvious ignition problems. It's just such an illusive problem that I've sort of learned to live with.
Have you checked the play in the distributor shaft? It should not have any side to side play. If it does, your dwell will fluctuate and cause an intermittent miss or shutter when the dwell changes, due to the shaft wobbling around.
had kind of the sameproblem,car would be running down the freeway just fine,all of a sudden it would stop running long enough to put raw fuel in the mufflers and then bang would run again,battled with it on the way to bg one year,stopped and put in new points,worked great for a hundred or so miles,then same thing,stopped in Evansville ind.put in new ignition switch(not key switch)problem solved,took old switch apart,the brass points that are in use in the run mode hade just enough deteriation so they weren't making good contact,reason it would run ok with new points until they started to arc causind higher resistance,then the weak points in the ignition switch sometimes couldn't overcome the resitance,whatever it fixed my issue
Just checked, and it has very little to no play side to side. Has about 1/8 inch play up and down though. I've had a dwell meter on it recently and it was stable.
Another way to get the timing all over the map- if the shaft moves up and down enough, I've even seen the rotor blade that transfers the spark to the contacts on the cap get busted off, seriously retarding the timing a lot. I won a race when this happened to the other guy. Let off the throttle to shift, the distributor shaft pops up, prangs the blade (or breaks the cap, I've seen that too). The way to check for this is to rotate the rotor both directions while the engine is off, and note how much it rises and falls. GM Part No. washer under the distributor shaft = #1837617. Just a box of shim washers. I think that they are available from JEGS and Summit (not the same part number, of course). The shaft moving up and down will also cause the dwell to vary, since the movement will effectively change the position of the distributor cam lobes over time as the shaft moves. That may not show up on a dwell meter, given the short duration. I leave about a .020" space for thermal expansion.
I did notice a slight issue with the electronic ignition which may be attributed to my factory Delco coil. And it seems to happen after the car gets hot- when I walk the clutch out off a traffic light and really lug the motor down, I noticed that the engine shudders for a brief second. Like the ignition cuts out for a very briefly. Like the Delco coil doesn't have a hot enough spark. With the points, I could lug the engine down to 400 rpm out of first gear and it wouldn't miss a beat. With the conversion kit, its missing a beat or two :laugh: I'll throw a coil in there that's made in this decade and see if the issue resolves itselfp
Indeed! I think that calls for another distributor housing. A box of shims that stack up to about .1" total ain't gonna cut it. ---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:06 PM ---------- Bold italics mine. Are you looking to wipe out the bottom end?!? :shock: What is your oil pressure when you do this?
Its only for a split second as I let off the clutch. I definitely see the tach go to 500 rpm. Normal rpm for an auto in drive is 550 isn't it?
So how do you like the XR-i? I was having problems with my points at musclepalooza and just attributed it to winding the engine out too far (5200rpm) I went home and swapped in my old points I keep in the glove box and the car ran great. Wish I thought of that at the track. I am at the point where I have decided points are great for the street but if you want every drop of performance then electronic is the way to go. I know many will say I am wrong but I think ill go with a Malory unilite and call it a day.
No cutting or splicing inside the distributor. But I believe the two wires for + and - on the coil you will need to cut to length and crimp on a connector. ---------- Post added at 02:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:54 PM ---------- I have had no issues. I had the car at the track only one time... Running crappy times, until a friend asked if I had a rev-limiter.. bingo. It was set to 4500. I borrowed a small screw driver and increased it.. and did much better on time.
I put a repro engine harness in the car at the same time... an M&H harness. Fit like a glove BTW I did not cut any wires.
LOL I was hoping you would not ask that Though I had a lot of fun.. Mine times were not what I hoped. I blame it on being my first time, and on slippy BFG tires. Taking off without spinning was difficult. Best time was 15 flat at 92 MPH Its a 73 455 in it... The only history I know of the motor is it has a Crane Fireball Cam, specs unknown. I have a carb with bigger jets done by Mark in TX (Carmantx) 3.42 corporate posi rear I keep watching Craigslist for a couple drag radials And one of these days Ill get the stage 1 heads and headers on. So maybe with those goodies, and some practice I could break 14 seconds. I like to think I could anyway :grin: Here's my best run [video=youtube;q9G1z4Msb0Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9G1z4Msb0Q[/video]
Well im sure mine is no better, its a ALL STOCK 72 455, and its slow as molasses, I changed the plugs last night only to find it had the original plugs AND wires on it. So now I need wires too. It even has a 72 Ohio plate that says ZZZ.
