i took my car to a guy to set the timing and after he tried for about an hour he said the distributor was off by like a tooth or something like that. he didnt really have time to tell me too much about it so im not sure what needs to be done. he set it so the timing is a little too advanced so its hard to start when its hot, can anybody tell me what he was talking about, and how i can do it? thanks alot

 

take your car to someone that knows what they're doing and tell this guy you tyook it to to put the crack pipe down, you can't have a distributor off a tooth.

 

i just talked to him and he said that the distributor gear at the bottom of it isnt lined up right with the cam gear, and he said you cant time it right untill you fix it. does that sound right?

 

yes that makes lot more sense, you can have the crank and cam gear off a tooth, if not more. that has nothing to do with the distributor, other than you can't time it or make it run right. how exactily did he figure out the cam timing is off? have you, or someone, r&r the timing chain and gear set?

 

I've seen where a dist was not indexed properly. When you tried to turn the dist to get the correct timing, the dist would physically hit something.

Had to pull the dist out and advance/retard it by one tooth. You'll also have to turn the oil pump shaft (with a long screwdriver) a little too so the bottom of the dist shaft meshes properly.

 

 

okay, today i pulled off my distributor after i got it to the top of the compression stroke on the number one cylinder. it was a full half turn off from the number one plug! so i pulled up the distributor and it wouldnt go to 1 exaclty but i put it between 1 and 8. i then put everything back together and i couldnt even get it to fire, just kept turning over, so then i checked it again and i had to reset it back to that spot and i tightend it down a little more and then i realized it was flooded so i put my foot all the way to the floor and it barely started and then died. so then i did it again and a flame came out of the carberator so somethings wrong, what should i do? i cant even get it to start? i am thinking maybe its in the timing chain? and we found out the timing was off when we put the timing light on it and tried to set it to the right specs and it wouldnt even start and you couldnt time it right

 

Sounds like you are 180 out now. and you could have been off a tooth with the dist which depending on which direction you are off, could cause you to not be able to time the engine. If you are off in one direction the lug where the wiring hooks to the dist will hit the firewall when trying to get the timing set.

I would remove the dist, remove #1 spark plug & put your thumb in the hole and slowly turn the engine over untill you feel air blowing past your thumb. Keep turning the engine slowly till your timing mark on the balancer hits 0 on the tab. Then remove the cap from the dist and set the rotor to point at the first terminal foreward of the wire lug on the cap. This will be #1 now, rotate the oil pump drive shaft so it will line up with the drive tang on the bottom of the dist. You'll need to back the rotor up just a little before you put the dist in the engine (it will tend to rotate foreward as it seats) slowly lower the dist into the engine and make sure it sits down all the way. The wiring lug for the cap should be pointing directly at the driver fender at this point when the cap is installed (this will give you the needed room to rotate the dist to set the timing properly). Install the cap and check that the plug wires are now going to the proper terminals/plugs.

 

i found out that the distributor wasnt all the way down due to the oil pump shaft. so i rotated the oil pump and put my distributor in and hooked it all up and then started the car, it started a little rough but i turned the distributor so that it ran good, then started it again and it fired right up and ill be taking it to a friend of mine that has the right stuff and ill set the timing and the carb. thanks alot guys, you helped me alot

 

And you're a moderator on the Tech Board?????????