The paper that came with my new distributor says to be sure that the wire terminal post that is aligned with the rotor leads to the number one cylinder. What is this for? What if you dont do it?

Thanks.

 

Rotate the engine to Top Dead Center before installing it. That way it will be on the #1 cylinder, and the distrubitor will also be right on #1.

 

thank you sir.

 

I put in the distributor and hooked it all up with the connector pugged in just like in the picture and the ignition wire in the BATT terminal. It will not start. It just keeps truning over, but no start. It will only start if I run the MSD 6A too. The ignition wire has 12 volts too. I cant figure it out.

 

What make and model distributor is it?

 

It a 93440806 H.E.I. Distributor from the high performance GM website.

 

So with the module installed, it doesn't work, but if you remove the module and install the harness for the MSD 6A then it does?

 

Yes. It was the same way with the MSD pro billet HEI I just took out.

 

Bad ground to the distributor?

 

I guess it could be...I thought it was grounded internally. I could probably hook up an external ground, huh?

 

Normally it should be grounded through the ground terminal on the cap.

 

The ground terminal is the middle "prong" where the attached lead fits in. This crap has me confused.

 

I was just thinking of the coil, sorry. The whole unit should be grounded to the engine through the body.

 

I feel like Rummy looks.

 

I thought if you find TDC of #1 that you timed off #6. Wait...that is if you install your timing chain dot to dot correct?

I haven't done this in a couple years so I have forgotten. I have to do it tomorrow so I better get it straight.

 

Ignition is always timed off #1 TDC firing. The timing chain has nothing to do with it.

 

If the ignition wire is getting 12v and the dist is grounded, what would make it not work??? Anyone got a clue?

 

I just thought about the tack wire still hooked to the 6a box. Would that cause the distributor not to work on it's own?

 

No

 

Ok what I was thinking was that if you find TDC of #1 and you line your timing chain up dot to dot that your rotor would actually be pointing to #6. And if you line you dots up at 12 oclock then your rotor would be pointing at #1.

Is that even remotely correct? I could swear I have went by that before and it worked. If its not true I wonder where I heard that from.

 

When the crank dot is at 12:00, the #1 and #6 cylinders are both at TDC. When the cam dot is at 12:00, the cam is at the #1 firing position. If they're both at 12:00 at the same time, the rotor is pointing at the #1 terminal. If the crank is at 12:00 and the cam is at 6:00, the rotor is pointing at the #6 terminal.

Unless you're going to go and tear the timing cover off every time you mess with the distributor, forget about the dots.

 

hmm...I just installed my chain dot to dot. Now to see why my rotor points...should I make that #1 or #6. I'm paranoid because I don't want a backfire...I have no desire to change a power valve right now.

 

It doesn't matter. Turn the crank over a full turn and you'll magically convert it to top to top.

 

Jesus...new cars are so much easier to own.

 

If you don't make a point of putting the distributor in on the compression stroke TDC of the #1 piston then, you have a 50/50 change of it starting on the first try. If it doesn't just pull the distrbutor and put it in 180° from where you pulled it out, and try starting it again.