I haven't mixed with distributor installation and alignment before and didn't have any luck in the garage today so I've spend some time reading up on the issue and would need some confirmation that I now understand it better or some help if I haven't... So I got this newly renovated Chrysler 318 (approx 1985) a while back. It came with the distributor installed, but we have turned the distributor housing in place so that the position in relation to the distributor shaft has changed. Does this matter? And if so, how do I align it right? The information I got from the seller was that before top-dead-center (BTDC) is 5-10 degrees. Does this mean that the line on the damper should line up with the indicator plate on the water pump where it says 5-10 degrees? And that I at this point need to rotate the distributor so that when I put the cap on it the spark plug terminal that goes to the first cylinders spark plug meets up with where the rotor points? Does it matter in what direction the rotor point to when the engine is in first cylinder BTDC? I think it is going to point to South-East if I stand in front of the car looking at the engine. Sorry if I messed up some names on stuff. English is not my first hand language on this technical stuff. Hope you understand my questions anyways, as I would love some help!
Yes, it matters. That is correct. But you also need to have the coil be triggered at that time, if it has points, the points should just start to open. If it has an electronic ignition, the reluctor tooth should just be passing past the pickup coil. You need to set it as close as you can before you start the engine, then as soon as you get it started, use a timing light to set it correctly. It does not really matter, but I like to install the distributor the way it was designed. I look in the shop manual to find where #1 is supposed to be.
Thank you, already seen it. Part two were even more helpful. I've also seen this video. There they say "Line up one of the spark towers on the cap, doesn't matter which one, with the pointer..." But you say it does matter? Oki, thanks. Can't remember I found that in the manual, but I will keep looking...
I gave you the picture from the manual. The only reason it really matters where #1 is on the cap, is for the spark plug wire routing, so the wires can be neat and as short as possible, and also so if someone who is used to working on the engines has to work on it, the wires will be where they belong. We expect #1 to be sort of pointing towards the #1 cylinder on some engines, such as the Chevy V8s and the small block mopar (they have the same cylinder number scheme, and the same firing order)
Boy Jim, now you REALLY confused him, since your picture has #1 headed the other way! I'd say the points/trigger pickup would be the most important thing to have aligned when the balancer is at 5 BTDC. With a Mopar, you don't have a lot of choices lining up the rotor correctly, so start wiring the plugs from whichever tower the rotor is under.
The Jalopy Journal
