thanks for all the help guys i figured out the bogging prob
yup i took it to the shop and i told him to check the timing and he checked it and i was standing there and he was like omg i cant believe this thing is running even this good he sed my timing was off by 10 hole degrees retarded he sed he couldnt correct it by turning the distributer that he would have to pull it out and move it a tooth but he didnt have any time at all so he is going to do it tuesday in the morning he sed it is going to be like a whole new car to me cause that was robbing me of alot of power he sed.

 

told yea :-D it should be 10º advanced (stock is 8º)

 

Yeah, sometimes you run out of room to turn the distributor before you get to the correct timing if it's off by a tooth.

Make sure you disconnect the timing wire when setting the timing if your engine is still ECM controlled.

 

yeah the machanic nows it isnt computer controled any more i pointed out all the mods and why i think it should be alot more peppyer then what it is now and thats how i convinced him that something is messed up so we checked the timing and like i thought it is way out of time it sux i have to wate till tuesday to get it fixed but better then nuthing i guess.

 

if my timing was that far off when i go to pick up my car when it is all done and fixed how much more power should i expect out of it if the timeing was ten degrees off retarded.

 

You can move your plugs wires to allow more room to turn the distributor. I had to do this because my vaccum advance hit my intake

Moving the teeth will be just as easy. Either way its getting fixed. Good luck. I hope it helps.

 

dists cant be off by a tooth, they can only be out 180 or right.. i'd find a new mechanic who knows what hes talkin about.. since you said its not computer controlled im assuming you are running an aftermarket carb and a vaccum advance dist correct? i'd highly suggest getting a timing light and checking the timing yourself, if something truely is "tooth off" or more its the timing chain.

 

BS! Yes they can be put wherever you want.

 

There is a reason why you can turn the distributor. If I want my motor at 40deg advance I'll turn it there, or 40deg retarded. Who cares.

Turn the dist until it's right. It's not all or nothing. Oh brother....

 

true, but it might not run....

 

you can't move the dizzy one tooth without also turning the oil pump. it's also easier to just move all the wires one spot over. you should buy a $20 timing light and get your car running today instead of paying a mechanic a whole lot more money to get it running a few days from now

 

I just got the motor in my car running last night, it was way retarded and I could not turn the distributor any more, so I pulled it out and moved the dist 1 tooth clock wise, now I can get it to 6* were it should be.

The dist has 13 teeth on it and every time you move it 1 tooth you are just moving the rotor in relation to were #1 plug wire is. To say that it can only be 180* out would mean that the dist would only be able to have 2 teeth on it and not 13.

 

yes, very true, a dist does in fact have 13 teeth on it, however if you look up about half an inch into the hollow shaft of a sbc dist you will see a little bar that goes across that engauges the oil pump, due to this bar its only possible to put a dist in 2 ways, 180 degrees out or correct, unless you have some sort of aftermarket dist which lacks that bar that fits into the groove on the oil pump, however if such a thing exists i am unfamiliar with it, but i guess anything is possible..

 

Uhhhh you must not have ever pulled a distributor in your life then. That oil pump shaft CAN and sometimes WILL move when you pull a distributor. When you go to stab the distributor back in, you can get it a tooth off. I've done it many times and I'm sure anyone else here that has tried to stab a distributor has done it at least once.

 

AMEN to that!

But I guess our little bench racers around here that never actually work on their cars know a whole lot more then us, so we better shut up and listen huh. LMAO

 

Its very easy to reinstall a distributor out of phase. Happened to me once or twice over the years.

Thats about the only Ford did that makes more sense, putting the distributor up front...

 

Sheesh, I guess so... Maybe I should have just become a bench racer too. Would have saved me from cut up and smashed hands plus it's a lot cleaner since you never do any work!

 

Take a long straight screwdriver and turn the pump shaft.

 

When you lift the dizzy up, just as the gear releases from the camshaft, you can turn the rotor to turn the oil pump to set the dist back in where you want the rotor pointing. If your engine is set ready to fire #1, then you make the point on the cap that is touching the rotor, have the #1 spark plug wire.

 

sorry your wrong again, my distributor in my truck was way off, along with the wires, i got it all together, it was off a few teether and was backfiring out the carb after running for a tad, i pulled it, re-alligned the pump shaft, dropped it and it ran just fine, it can be a tooth.

 

Hmm, maybe I should do the same, then in addition to staying clean, and avoiding the possibility of getting cuts and bruses, my girlfriend would probably be a little happier that I won't be going to the shop as much.

You know, I always thought that the oil pump would have to spin, even the input shaft to the oil pump, naw, the shaft just stays in one possition and kenetic forces maybe just hope make the pump spin, at the other end of the same shaft.

 

Not sure where this thread is going BUT..... you CAN drop the distributor in on any of it's 13 teeth. So being off by 1 or more teeth is entirely possible. It won't drop all the way home until the oil pump shaft slot lines up with the slot in the bottom of the distributor timing gear, but this ha nothing to do with whether it's installed correctly, off by a tooth, 2 teeth, 8 teeth, whatever. The oil pump shaft points whatever direction it happens to be pointing at that time, and it can rotate so it doesn't line up quite easily (it's more the rule than the exception, actually). Getting it to line up once the distributor is installed can be done by inserting a long screwdriver and turning it slightly before dropping the dist. in OR by bumping the engine over with the starter after installing the distributor until it drops all the way home. But it absolutely CAN be off by a tooth or more, leaving the distributor rotated at a very funny angle when the timing is correctly set. If your distributor has a vacuum advance can sticking out the side you can easily run out of room to turn the distributor before you get to the correct timing if it's off by a tooth or two.

 

Lets get back to how the distributor was stabbed wrong in the first place. When you stabbed it, were you aiming the rotor at the plug or the piston?

I'm going thru this same issue. So is each tooth worth 13 degrees of timing?

 

ok time to make you all shut up LOL tell me if i'm wrong here... BUT the GEAR moves RIGHT? so in fact with that being well known that the GEAR moves ALL the time when the motor is running then turing the GEAR one tooth won't do crap but put the motor back into timeing. do i have to spell it out for you.... i think i will... G....E....A....R..... all GEARS move. your not turing the SHAFT of it your tuning the GEAR not the SHAFT. ok i'm done but i think i need to point out the all GEARS move as long the the teeth line up then its no big problem....

 

Yeah, so when the radiator developes a leak it can fill the distributor. What a better idea

 

Actually it DOES matter, at least in relation to the plug wires, since they do not move and timing is quite critical that the spark is placed when the rotor is pointing at the correct plug wire, in relation to the compression stroke of each cylinder, on engines, "Timing is everything", and yes the shaft that the gear at the end of the distributer is attached to does spin.

 

Just throwing more fire out there...

But with my remote coil HEI ignition, sometimes I can't turn the distributor far enough because of the wiring harness going to the ignition module- so then I have to pull it out and drop it back in where I can get some "spin" without twisting the harness wires into a pretzel.

But I agree; I've never heard of a distributor being a tooth off.

Unless it's just an old saying

 

TomP, you can't be serious? It's very easy to get a distributer off by one tooth, 3 teeth, etc....

 

I can personally vouch for the one tooth off syndrome...The car will run, but you probably won't be able to rotate the cap enough to get the proper timing setting...hmmm - the distributor must be one tooth off.

Pick it up, rotate slightly, reinstall and time the engine accordingly...

To all of the so called distributor experts here, I say to you:

 

You can get the dist off by one tooth, plain and simple. Now you dont fix it by turning the rotor back one tooth, you have to also turn the oil pump shaft back or forward the same distance. And, if you have to do this, you might as well start all over by putting the motor at TDC and aiming the rotor at the #1 cylinder with the oil pump shaft turned in its proper position.

My problem was the intake was in the way of the vac. canister on the side of the dist., so I just moved the wires around the cap to get the proper advance. Now it just looks lazy and silly, for those of you who know what I'm talking about.

 

thats why you can move the cap some people just don't think