Distribtor drive help

[dog man]

Hey guys

I've cocked myself up this eve just basically messing around under the bonnet

Just got round to doing some under bonnet chores including tightening the vacuum canister on the dizzy, so off came the distributor, all came out fine, removed it in seconds, tightened the vacuum canister...great, ready to refit but unfortunately refitting became a right mare.

Juggling the dizzy clamp and lock nut (on pre serps its very fiddly) and I had trouble relocating the distributor drive end. Anyways loads of fiddling later (it's juggling the clamp so that it sits right that is the tricky bit) and I got it to go back nicely but it wont start now. Now do also bear in mind that instead of the plug connector, I only have two loose female spade connectors going to the ign module so it may well be that in the fading light I havent put them back on quite right/not on properly/one is touching the middle pole of the ign module (only the two outer poles get used)

But back to the dizzy...

I knew roughly where the rotor arm was when it came out and while I struggled I carefully tried (and I stress, GENTLY!) moving the rotor arm to see if that would coax the end into the other end (is it the oil pump?) and anyway I'm quite sure the rotor arm has gone back a few degrees out from where it was so have I messed up the distributor drive?

Okay put it another way, apart from being 180 degrees out of phaze, can you cock the dist drive up incrementally so-to-speak? I thought it could only be either correct or 180 out?

[blitzracing]

Its very easy to get the drive out by one notch, especially as the arm rotates about 15' as it engages from the start point. You need to start from scratch, remove plug one and carefully rotate the engine with something soft (like a pencil) being held down through the plug hole, so you can feel it as the piston comes up to top dead center. Now if you think you may be 180' out it may be on the exhaust stroke, not the compression stroke, so you may need to screw a plug in half a turn to see if gas leaks pass the plug as you rotate the engine towards top dead center, to show its on compression. Once you are happy its on compression, top dead center, then you need to insert the distributor to get the rotor to align with plug take off number 1 on the distributor cap once the distributor is fully home. This will set the rotor arm in its basic position, but the timing will still need to be strobed if you have not marked the distributor position up. Did you get anywhere with the test meter readings and the cut out issue?

[dog man]

How do I know when the rotor aligns with No.1 without a see through dizzy cap? Is No.1 marked on the dist body?

[dog man]

Okay so with cap on, I mark on the dist body exactly where No.1 is then, establish TDC and refit dist so that rotor aligns with No.1 mark. correct?

[dog man]

I've got a Snap On timing gun (with dial on the back). So as far as I can see, as long as rotor is pointing at No.1 at TDC, and once it's running, I just use the gun to get it to 8* BTDC as normal

[dog man]

Yep, thanks Spend (and Blitz) I'm good to go now. Reckon it'll be going again in no time. Will be good to get the vac can take off away from pas resovior anyway

[dog man]

All done. Ended up starting from scratch with the wires too, think the dist cap was wrong way round - they have a location tab and I think my tab was on the wrong side. Interesting.

I would recommend anyone messing with their distributor to invest in a large elastic band to hold the cap clips out the way! those swines hook up on everything!

[dog man]

Interesting was that when I reset the timing with the gun, 8 Deg initial timing (Vac Off) worked out at a mere 22deg @4,000 rpm. To get the suggested 28 deg at 4,000 rpm required 14 deg initial. Been out all day for a 8hr marathon loop with a mate and she's running spot on, no pinking, starting fine from hot.