distributor Question

hey guys just bought a new hei distributor for my chevy 350 and i havent put a new distributor in before and i just dont wany to **** it up does any one have some good advice so i dont end up ****ing the whole engine up thanks eddie

 

Not trying to be a smart *** but read the fine print under the heading Questions & Suggestions, this area for questions & suggestions about the board in general, how it works, suggestions on how Ryan can improve the overall board. Post questions about cars etc under the general HAMB forum, you will get more response.

Now the biggie to do installing a new distributor is to make sure you get the rotor pointing in and the distributor body the same exact spot as the old distributor. Remove the distributor cap, leave the plug wires on the cap so you are only dealing with one thing at a time, if you are going to replace the wires and the cap, I suggest you put the new dist in, get it running with the old wires & cap, then replace them, that way if you have trouble you don't have so many things to troubleshoot. take the holddown off the manifold, usually bolt takes 9/16 wrench, so you can remove the old distributor. Unhook wiring, va*** advance, if it has it. Make note of, maybe mark, exactly how the distributor body is located, maybemake a mark on the intake manifold and the distributor, slowly pull the distributor out, may have to twist the distributor some, gunk gets built up, the rotor will move slightly as you pull the distributor ut of the engine due to the angle on the drive gear. When the drive gear disengages from the camshaft the rotor will stop turning. At that point somehow mark, or made note of the position of the rotor. Make sure you put the new distributor in the same position and that the rotor is pointing to the same spot as it was just before you took out the old one. Now that you got it back in it probably won't set down all the way because of the oil pump driveshaft that fits in the bottom of the distributor. Or it might drop all the waty in. If it doesn't hold a little pressure on the dstributor downward, slowly bump the engine over with the starter until the distributor drops in all the way. Then re***emble everything, will have to adjust the timing with a timing light, etc.
If it pops back thru the carb, or won't start you got it back in the hole wrong. Be real careful that you get the distributor and the rotor pointing exactly as you took it out. Go to the main HAMB forum, repost, tell them some dumb*** old greybeard gave you bum info & somebody will walk you thru. it is very easy to get the timing off when removing, reinstalling dist but it wont hurt anything, just more work to get it right. Good luck.