right now i'm looking to trade my V6 camaro for a 85 T/A with WS6 suspension and 5 speed. problem with the car is, the guy who took it to the dealer wanted to take his Edelbrock manifold off first. he took the distributor off, then decided it was too much work for him. so he put the distributor on, but on the WRONG TOOTH. how much of a pain in the a$$ is it to get the distributor back on the right tooth? any tricks involved to make it easy? help would be greatly appreciated

 

not all that hard, just set the timing as usal, if it cant turn enought then you will need to reset it, just set the balencer to TDC (0 on the timing mark on the balencer, on the compessions stroke on #1 cylinder) where ever the rotor is pointing, that will be where you start the wiring order, that will be 1 and then follow it around

 

Almost correct.

First of all get #1 cylinder to TDC. Pull the plug and put your finger over the hole while someone bumps the starter over. The timing mark will go past the pointer 2 times. One is the exhaust stroke and the other time is TDC. When at TDC you'll feel the compression push past your finger. Move the crankshaft now so that the mark on the balancer is pointing at the timing pointer. If possible, move it a few degrees before TDC. If you base timing is 8 then move the timing mark to 8 degrees. Your engine is now set up for timing.

Pull the distributor cap and look to see where the rotor is pointing. It should be pointing to the #1 plug wire. Your #1 plug wire can be anywhere on the cap. It's just typically at the 5 oclock position. If you want to move it somewhere else then pull the distributor out and move the rotor. When you drop the distributor back in, it must line up with the oil pump drive. You'll probably have to use a long flat tip screwdriver to move the oil pump drive to where you want it. Drop the distributor back in making sure it's fully seated. If not the try a different tooth or move the oil pump drive again.

Once you get the rotor pointing where you want and the distributor is fully seated remove the rotor. You want to see the magnetic pickup underneith. Rotate the distributor to line up the pickup pointers and lock the distributor down. When you originally set up the engine for timing (8 degrees) and now lock the distributor down with the pickup pointers lined up, the engine is now timed and ready to fire up. Reinstall the rotor, cap and plug wires and fire it up. Once it's warmed up recheck the timing but it should be close enough.

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87 IROC-Z SuperPro ET Bracket Race Car
461 naturally aspirated Big Block (times are for the current engine)

Best ET on a time slip: 11.447 altitude corrected to 10.99
Best MPH on a time slip: 119.42 altitude corrected to 124.86
Altitude corrected rear wheel HP: 493
Best 60 foot: 1.586

Racing at 3500 feet elevation with a typical race day over 5000 feet density altitude!
Member of the Calgary Drag Racing Association

87 IROC bracket car, 91 454SS daily driver, 95 Homebuilt Harley