thought id finished my car yesterday, so i took it out, but it would not go above 1000 rpm, kept on dying. when i finally got it home, i set the #1 at tdc and took off the dist cap, it was not pointing at the #1 spark plug, so i loosend the bolt on the dist, and spun the rotor around so it was, but now it wont even start. is that how its supposed to be? #1 tdc with the rotor pointing at #1 spark plug? it is a 305 with carb, no electrics been converted from v6 inj to v8 carb

any help would be appreciated thanks

 

TDC is the #1 firing position on one rotation of the crank and #6 firing position on the next rotation. The crank makes two rotations for one rotation of the distributor.

Sounds like you just put your distributor in 180 degrees off. Put it back, then set the timing with a timing light.

 

Are you sure #1 is at TDC or did you just use the timing mark on the balancer? The balancer ring can slip, so you need to make sure the mark lines up with actual TDC before you can be sure of anything. Take the plug out and use a pressure gauge or something.

Also, the magneto ring on the distributor can slip, so that your timing keeps changing after you set it.

I've had both of these happen to me; and both were hair-pulling experiences until I figured it out, so check these first before you starting going crazy and/or throwing parts at it.

 

And of course there's the 12 o'clock timing tab vs. the 2 o'clock timing tab. Mix timing tab and damper types, and you'll never get it timed correctly without special effort.

 

thanks for the help, i`ll give it a try tomorow, i think i got it 180 out #1 not on the compression stroke, which should put the rotor pointing at the #6 i guess .
anyway ive driven it once b4 yesterday with the same timing that it had and it went better, the only difference between yesterday and the time b4 is that i have the pcv valve pluged into the carb, and the brake booster into the intake, before i had the intake vacuum hole plugged, the booster pluged into the carb and the pcv not plugged in anywhere.
all this is new to me so i aint that good yet, used to the electronic stuff that tells you whats wrong!!
thanks again for your help

 

What type of distributor are we talking about here?

 

its a regular distributor with the coil inside it

 

By that I assume you mean one with vacuum and mechanical advance.

 

yes it has the vacuum advance on it. does it matter where on the carburettor that it connects to?

 

finally figured out what was wrong, it was not the timing, it was vacuum leaks, fixed them, and it runs real good now

 

Man that sure doesn't sound like a pure vacuum problem. Glad you got it fixed, though.

 

i think lack of gas also didnt help, when i got it home there were no gas left, but i`m suprised how much difference a vacuum leak makes, now with no leaks it idles around 950 rpm which is probably too high, but before, i guess when there were alot of leaks, it was idling at close to 500, but anyway saturday was the 1st time i`d really driven it and it was very enjoyable, it aint finished yet, but atleast i can drive it now and have some fun, instead of it just sitting there getting dirty