I HAVE A 1991 305 TPI TA WITH THE DISTRIBUTOR AND SEPARATE COIL SET UP. I NEED TO KNOW WHERE TO START THE SPARK PLUG WIRES ON TOP OF THE DISTRIBUTOR? THERE IS ONLY ONE "LUMP LINE" IN THE DISTRIBUTOR THAT POINTS AT THE TWO CONNECTORS BELOW... WITH THE TIMING PROPERLY SET SHOULD THE TWO CONNECTORS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE DISTRIBUTOR BE POINTING TOWARDS THE FIREWALL OR DRIVERS SIDE OF THE ENGINE? PLEASE RESPOND....ANY AND ALL HELP IS DEEPLY APPRECIATED....

 

you typically want to start your firing order with the rotor pointing towards number one cylinder, so where ever that may be on the cap is where you start, 18436572 is the order

 

press the cap lock key before you start typing again

 

devil's advocate here. Would it matter where you put the lead for no.1 AS LONG AS the firing order was followed? I mean the rotor arm won't always stop at the no.1 position.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

I don't know certainly the rotor doesn't stop on the no.1 everytime but doesn't it matter which button the no.1 goes on? Thanks for responding....

 

you can make #1 on any post you like as long as you follow the correct order. lot of people do just that for one reason or another.

 

It should be rearward facing. It can point wherever it likes so long as the wires are long enough. It can't point towards the front of the engine because the wires don't allow it.

If it's really bugging you, find TDC, set the balancer to 6 BTDC. stab the dist so it's perfectly straight while making sure the rotor points at cyl #1. Hook it back up in the proper firing order, adjust your timing and forget about it. Yeah sure, it won't be pefectly straight as an arrow, but who really cares?

Balancer mark at 0 is firing for #1 and #6, depending on which the cycle. Typically you want TDC at cylinder #1, and the rotor should be pointing at the spark plug boot terminal that will fire.

 

Typically on a SBC the #1 plug tower should be on the front of the distributor, just off to the driver's side. With #8 also on the front just off to the pass. side and then so on around the cap in proper firing order.

Like was said before, it doesn't matter as long as you set the timing right and have the plug wires in the correct firing order, but doing it like I said above will usually give you the "cleanest" plug wire routing at the end of the day.