TuOrZ

"stock" L69 (stock bottom end at least + stock cam etc...)

has been running good for the past year or so, but it would have weird knocking/detonation problems on hot days etc... I won't get into that too much but after swapping carbs and few other things I realized the distributor that's in it should be swapped as well as it came out of a much more powerful motor and I really had no idea what springs/weights were in there or if it was having any other issues. I had a 100% stock HEI distributor sitting around from a car that ran perfectly so I figured why not try it and then get my own weights/springs and mess with it on my own.

Please follow along what I did and maybe you can see where the problem may be.

1) I put the cap on distributor and mark with a sharpie where #1 is (on the distributor, I just used the cap to show me where #1 is).

2)rotate the motor until balancer mark lines with with the big notch on the timing tab (I'll get to that later)

3) distributor seems to be one tooth off or so, not exactly on #1 but well near it. So I pull it out , stick a long screwdrive in the hole and move the oil pump drive shaft a tiny bit until the distributor drops in while pointing exactly to #1, body of the distributor is perfectly centered along the cars axis so I have the same amount of adjustment to right/left

4) throw the cap back on, all the wires are right etc... try to fire it up with the vaccum advance disconnected and nothing, sounds like it's about to fire but doesn't,

5) if while cranking I turn the distributor counter-clock wise all the way (I'm not sure right now if that's advance or retard) it fires up and runs great, but I"m sure during a test drive it would still sputter/backfire or just would not be good enough, either way I don't want the distributor turned that way, it should be centered

Here's what I can conclude from it and maybe I'm wrong

- I don't think it's 180 off, it would never fire up even when adjusted all the way to either side right?

- I'm not sure what the "big notch" is on the timing tab, it's rusty and old and I can't read anything off it. Is that the 0* setting? and if so, should it be set to that??? Seems that anything I find claims it should be at 0* when #1 is at TDC

are there any stock motors (like a 1984 L69) that shouldn't be at 0* ?

TuOrZ

for the record, it is a 84 L69 but it has a non-cc carb and non-cc distributor, it is a regular vacuum advance

motor ran fine for many months, just wasn't set exactly how I wanted it to so it has to be related to the way I set initial timing with this new distributor.

jasman19

Sounds like to me you're a tooth off. Just pull it out and move the distributor one to two teeth in the clockwise direction. This should solve your problem with "not having it centered". The vacuum can should be pointed toward the passenger wheel well and the #1 plug wire should be about center on your carb. When you turn the distributor counter-clockwise it advances the timing and retarding it is vise-versa. The mark on the balancer should be TDC. Let me know how it works out.