Don Coatney Posted April 12, 2009 Report Posted April 12, 2009 James; Just to let you know I have installed the distributor you re-worked for me. It is running great. Only thing I had to do was replace the pop rivets holding on the cap spring clips. I tapped the holes 6/32 and installed screws. Reason I had to do this was the spring clips would flop from side to side making it impossible for me to clip the cap into place with the limited clearance between the oil filter and me having fat fingers and all;) I static timed the new distributor using a meter (so I would know when the points break) with both timing adjusters at the mid point. Had problems starting the engine until I figured out that I had the wires off by one hole in the distributor cap. Fixed that and it fired off directly. Interesting notation. I discovered the vacuum advance pot on my old distributor had failed and would not hold vacuum. Last time I checked it was about 25,000 miles ago. I do not know when it failed but my engine was running well when I pulled this distributor. Quote
greg g Posted April 12, 2009 Report Posted April 12, 2009 are you no longer running dual points??? maybe that day we wet for a ride and it was misbehaving was the VA going bad..... Quote
Don Coatney Posted April 12, 2009 Author Report Posted April 12, 2009 are you no longer running dual points??? maybe that day we wet for a ride and it was misbehaving was the VA going bad..... Yes to the dual points. I just returned from picking my sister up and I am not where I need to be. Car ran terribly on the road. As bad or worse than the day you mentioned. I will troubleshoot tomorrow. Lisa has a prime rib in the oven about ready to chow down on. I do have my priorites in order! Quote
grey beard Posted April 13, 2009 Report Posted April 13, 2009 On the subject of distributor problems, just when ya think you know most of it, if not all, I got bit in the butt last week with my own. Pulled the dist and found a loose centrifugal weight post. Had a spare unit apart on the bench of a different number, but the two shafts and weight units appeared to be the same - but the two bodies were completely different. Pulled the bad weight unit off and swapped it with the other dist, then put her back in the block with the rotor in the same position I had pulled it out. Wouldn't start - even if I cranked it till the radiator boiled over. (Tried that, too.) After numerous r & r attempts, finally pulled number one plug, got compression stroke up on tdc, and all like that there, only to find that I - me, the teacher of electronic stuff with boo coodle years of this stuff unner my belt - was, like Don, one hole off on the dist cap. Seems like different dist cam assemblies are timed diffeently with respect to the shaft on which they sit. Goes to show ya that when you mix and match parts, you often lose. Mebby that old saw about robbin' Peter to pay Paul has a grain or two of trooth in it, what? Now that I'm back on track, it runs real sweet. Just need a vacuum pot at the moment, and we'll find one sooner or later. I'm sure these engines will run really well without the vacuum advance - ton and a half and bigger trucks don't even have 'em, but I'm sure fuel economy would suffer. Quote
Rodney Bullock Posted April 13, 2009 Report Posted April 13, 2009 WoW, I can't believe it. two people with the same problem:) When you guy's say one hole off do you mean that the firing order was off as you count clock wise or counter clockwise on the cap? I know Don wasen't going to let the car stop him from some Prime rib:D Good eating! Quote
Don Coatney Posted April 13, 2009 Author Report Posted April 13, 2009 WoW, I can't believe it. two people with the same problem:) When you guy's say one hole off do you mean that the firing order was off as you count clock wise or counter clockwise on the cap?I know Don wasen't going to let the car stop him from some Prime rib:D Good eating! One hole off = #1 plug wire was in the #5 hole........ BURP:cool: Quote
Don Coatney Posted April 13, 2009 Author Report Posted April 13, 2009 New distributor, new dual points in the distributor, new rotor, new cap. I metered all the new stuff and it was all OK. Suspected the plugs may be fouled. Installed clean ones to no avail. Still misfires. Suspected the old plug wires may have lost resistance. Ohmed all wires through the cap 1.0-1.3 ohms resistance. Ohmed the set of new wires I have on the bench 1.0-1.3 ohms resistance. Still looking and looking for new ideas. Quote
Don Coatney Posted April 13, 2009 Author Report Posted April 13, 2009 My good friend Tim Adams called me and we discussed where I was at and where to go next. While he was on the phone he mentioned I should have a look at the rotor in the area where the distributor cap spring loaded tit makes contact with the rotor tang. On the brand new "fresh out of the box" rotor I had installed I noticed a good bit of carbon tracing at this contact point after 20 miles of engine mis-firing crappy driving. On the used rotor I had on the bench the carbon tracing was not present. I then grabbed my vernier calipers and did some measuring. I found a .070" varience in the depth where the rotor fits to the top of the diatributor shaft. I installed the old rotor and VIOLA my problem is solved! I did a couple of laps around the neighborhood short block in the rain and my race winning engine never once mis-fired. I am a happy camper:D Quote
Plymouthy Adams Posted April 13, 2009 Report Posted April 13, 2009 see you and ole Blue in Elko this Saturday.... Quote
greg g Posted April 14, 2009 Report Posted April 14, 2009 Beware the many differences in distributors, caps and their associated innards. Don't know how many times you guys have been warned to take your distributor numbers with you. Quote
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