I have an 86 Firebird TA that I just swapped 305 to 350. Put in stock dist, but added Accel coil, wires and cap. Problem is that the top of the coil will give you a huge shock when you touch it when the engine is runnig. We added a ground wire from one of the screws to the firewall and it works fine, but this isn't right. Why is this happening?

This is the big distributor with the coil on top of the cap.

Where does the distributor ground to?

 

Don't touch it while its on- problem solved. After the coil these things have 30,000- 50,000V, so don't touch it.

 

yeah when we were timing my new 350 over the weekend, we shut the car to adjust timing. My buddy had gotten zapped real bad on a previous car and woke up on the ground, so we chose to avoid that at all costs...

 

Yeah that is good advise. My mechanic told me that he got shocked. Before this it was arcing but now it runs ok. I wonder how you are supposed to adjust the timing if you can't touch it when running?

 

Turn it off, adjust, and start it back up.

Thats what we did.
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On a separate note, you having issues idling high after your swap?

I have yet to reset the IAC and TPS, but Im idling around 1000-1200 with the EST plugged in. I idle around 750-800 with the EST Disconnected.

 

I don't know what we are idling at. The car is at my mechanics shop. Still running open headers so I need to get that finished first. Then I can drive it around. I have heard it run and it sounds like it runs smooth and well under 1000.

 

cool, thanks for the info.