Hard question; easy answer. On an HEI distributor on a 305 SBC, I understand that the post on the distributor that is pointing at the #1 (front left) cylinder should have the plug wire going from that post to that plug. Mine isn't. I have not put a timing light on it, yet, but I can sense that the distributor needs to go "one notch" counter-clock- wise to be able to rotate the distributor a little more clock-wise to time it. That would also line up #1 post with #1 cylinder. Question; Can I just lift the distributer up and rotate it a little counter-clock-wise and set it back in with out disturbing anything else?? Will the oil pump go back into its notch properly?? Thanks for you help. Regards, Twobit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just did this on my 283 with a points distributor. You might have to turn the oil pump shaft with a long screwdriver. Sometimes gently bumping the engine works too. If the distributor is seated flat against the intake, the dist and rod are lined up.
It doesn't make any difference which cap terminal is set up to be #1 - none what so ever. All that matters is that when the #1 cylinder is at the timing mark, and on the compression stroke, the distributor rotor is pointing at the terminal that has the #1 spark plug wire on it. It can be anywhere you want it to be.
Not sure, but I think that the rotor pointing to 5:30 O'Clock firing #1 on a SBC resulted from the dizzy being in the best position there to prevent vacuum pod interference with the firewall or intake manifold.
Ha Ha , Yeah, but we we re talking SBC. You can have the body pointing in any position that it fits best and still have the #1 wire ANYWHERE you want it as long as the rotor is pointing to the right place. There is no relationship between the body of the distributor and the #1 position - None
THANK YOU, Don! I've never understood point the rotor at the number one cylinder. You point the rotor at the number one terminal on the distributor cap. If you want it in the stock location (not a bad idea) it's around 5 o'clock on HEI's and around 8 o'clock on Chevy point style distributors.
sounds like you just need to look down in the dizzy hole and with a long blade screw driver, turn the oil pump counter clock wise, just enough to get the dizzy down where it`s sitting on the manifold.
it does make a difference were you make your #1.it limits your timing window(how much advance or retard youll get) use a big screw driver&move your oil pump shaft till you get the distributor to point to the manufactures specs.better if you get an old distributor&take the gear off,it makes life easier.
You can set your vacuum advance in the stock location and still use any terminal for number 1 if you want.
When I was an apprentice/school student in the Buick classroom (Nixon days) I ventured that it made no difference, well the scolding I received was epic. "You put things back the way the factory built it or go work on effing Chevrolets. At Buick we do it right." So that's the way I always attempted to do it. jm2c ----------305 SBC---------------------
Precisely - that was the point I was making! Now that is FUNNY! But we are building Hot Rods, so you can put it anywhere you want now
305 see "Eight Cylinder Engine" Hey I watched a guy take a 351C with no timing marker put a piston stop in number 5, call it number 1, wired it like a chevy 18436572, using Chevy cylinder numbers. I told him he was insane, then it fired up and ran perfect, now took me a while to figure out why, 18436572 in Chevy and 15426378 in Ford are the same order....
That's it !!!!!!, I'm looking in a motor manual to see this. I don't play with Ford's much so I need to cheat a bit to figure this out. I do know this much, Ford has a funky cly. lay out (to me anyway), and if I trans pose the Chevy number's over the Ford this may be the ticket.
Actually it all depends on how you look at it. -17 + -3 = -14 so there is no right answer to this question yet if you do -1+-5=4 so yea
So....then can I just move each wire over clock-wise one post and gain the slack I seem to need to rotate the cap clock-wise for timing?? Am I confused?? Regards, Twobit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not knowing what it is you really need of your timing (advance or retard) with out the light to tell you/us where your at is of no help to getting an answer. Tell you what though, this is how we/you learn. Note down your way of wanting to try and see what happen's. If wrong, go back the other way then. This will shed more light your way as to what cause and affect will do. This is learning 101. I'm not being a hard Ass here, I sense that your understanding thing's pretty well, your just "confused" as you said.
In general, when the cylinders fire equal degrees apart and timing is controlled by movement of the cam or reluctor to maintain rotor phasing then you will likely have no issues. There are engines where this is not true and where the apparent wire routing on the outside of the cap is not the same inside. Such as some Ford caps, any odd-fire engine, early Buick V-6, all chevy 229s, corrected HEI caps, and more. There are two multiple GM HEI pick up coil polarities and coil windings. They are related to the position of the starter and it's magnetic fields effect on the pick up coil. So "assuming" you can change things may or may not work. Trial and error suggests that on conventional 4 Terminal Module HEI Chevrolet V8's there are no harmful effects. The first car I ever tuned up was my sisters 60 corvair. I was very careful to put everything in correctly, sure enough it won't run. I knew what a 180 out engine sounded like, the gas station I worked at since 13 seemed to fire everyone up like that. So I pulled the rotor and double checked, round peg in round hole, square peg in square hole. I went and got the old one out of the trash, the pegs were cut off. Someone stabbed the distributor, and too lazy to pull it out, just clipped the pegs off. My first introduction to what I came to call a motor pool mechanic.
Most early V8s use a similar firing order but Ford changed their firing order on the small blocks as they were correcting the crankshaft load, GM chose to keep it the same in spite of knowing the better order, ever hear of a firing order swap on Chevrolet's 4-7 swap? That is why and the power adder folks sure do like it to keep the crankshafts alive!
People used to go crazy when I told them that the Ford and Chevy firing orders were the same. The cylinders are just numbered differently.
It makes them easier to get at but since the distributor drives the oil pump, it requires the sump to be in front which made them move the engine farther forward relative to the front wheels making the cars nose heavy. It also means the oil tries to run away from the pickup on acceleration. Ford tried to correct this with the double sump pans and a long pickup tube in the rear sump.
Then , why is a flathead Ford v8 (other ford v8s , too!) piston number 5 is in front of number 1 on the crankshaft , I always had a problem with this , shouldn't the number 1 piston be the front, or first, on the crankshaft , like an inline engine????
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