Technical Need help with setting Distributor in SBC 350 HEI

Advance the timing a little more and see what happens. If you have someone that can crank it over while you slowly turn the distributor a dozen degrees back and forth it may take off. 12 degrees of distributor rotation equals 24 degrees on your balancer.

 

Picture shows the correct wiring for the HEI setup on a SBC. Here is the setup...with correct order

 

Do you have a timing light? Just put one on and SEE where it is firing!

 

Just to be sure the module is getting full battery voltage, use a jumper wire from battery post to the distributor. Make sure it's on the BATT terminal, and not the TACH terminal. HEI needs full battery power, if you are using the OEM coil wire, or fuse panel power, you can damage the module or have a poor running engine. Also use 12 gauge wire. Best to wire it right off the key switch and have the key switch wired right off the battery, again with 12 gauge wire.

Put some masking tape on the firewall or manifold somewhere so you can see it, them put a piece on the distributor cap so its close to the other piece. Make a mark on both as a reference point. The distributor rotates clockwise, so turning the housing counter clock wise advances the timing.
Using the tape, advance the timing and try starting. Make any kind of mark on the tape you want so you know where you are and where you came from. If its worse, go the other way and try, always knowing how far from the reference point you are getting.
If you run out of rotating room due to the vacuum advance unit hitting, pull the distributor and move one gear tooth then start again, OR move the wires one hole forward or backwards and start over.

 

Good post.
At this point, you might want to pull all the plugs. Put them back on the wires and set them where they're all grounded. Not near the carburetor. Put a good jump on the battery, and crank it over, while trying to set the timing with a light.
You'll be checking for good , hot spark, and getting the timing close too.
If it's all good, then it should light up. If not, pour a SMALL amount of gas in the primaries and try again.
Weak or no spark? Then we'll bench test the HEI.

 

I wasn't referencing the wires. The position of the distributor itself doesn't look right. Maybe it's the angle of the pic.

 

So far, i ohm'd out my wires and they all seem fine, my friend is bringing his HEI distributor to see if the module is bad. I did the old school spark test on each plug wire by sticking my klien screw driver in the boot and holding it over my valve cover while watching for an arc...it has a spark, on each one that are the same visually ...but its not like a fat bolt of lightning hurled by Zeus...gonna crank it again when my buddy gets here.

 

I've never tried the spit ball thing and most likely never will but I have set who knows how many distributors in by bumping the engine over with my finger over the spark plug hole as most of the guys suggested. Some times it takes a lot of tries to get it right.
One thing I see or believe I see is a female slide end on the connection to the coil pin on the cap rather than the factory HEI style clip on pin. While that works it caused me no end of grief when I had a similar connector on my OT truck. Over time the connector gets just loose enough that it doesn't keep contact all the time.
Other than that I'd pull #1 plug again, have someone bump it over with my finger over the plug hole and make sure it is up on #1 , check exactly where the rotor is pointing, Turn the distributor so that the #1, Terminal on the cap is lined up with the rotor and lock the distributor down. If you have to pull the distributor out to turn the rotor to the right spot you have to pull it out and do it, no big deal we have all been there. They only get it right the first time on the TV shows not in the real world.
One last thought is that some models of those trucks around that time didn't have power to the coil through the switch when the engine was cranking. The power to the coil when cranking with the starter only came through the resistor byp*** wire from the solenoid. When the engine fired an you let off the key it changed to ignition and ran. I've seen a number of them that had the won't fire when cranking but fire up when you let off the key situations back years ago.

 

Thanks for the info, i dont mind setting the distrbutor as i have done this alot over the past month...i will keep trying, it looks to be close to working,

 

did you check it with did you check it with a timing light yet?

 

What year is the engine?
What year application is the balancer
What year application is the timing cover and pointer?
This is clearly under the water pump right?
Clearly an after market pointer correct?


Chevy moved the marks around, all the different corresponding parts fit any block and work just fine however THE MARKS WILL BE OFF if not kept in matching sets. You can manage to fit the parts correctly and then marks lie to you. The above pic shows where the correct TDC mark is by years. What they did keep the crank Keway in the same place - relocate the pointer and moved the TDC mark on the balancer to match. It's easy to get stuff at least 40* off if you didn't watch for this.

Your spit ball trick will get you on compression stroke BUT IT WILL NOT GET YOU TOP DEAD CENTER, it's simply not thorough enough and lacking the step where you physically check the Piston's up and down motion from TDC.

You need to verify the timing marks with a piston stop test. At least stick a plastic straw in the spark plug hole to verify the piston is at the top. There is no sense using a timing light before verified marks.

 

Borrow a distributor from a known working engine. I once went thru a similar sequence of events on a 383 with a different mismatched timing cover and balancer it took a lot of trial and error

 

No trial. No error with a piston stop test to verify TDC.
That's the beauty of it.

 

Yep, on mine I bought the TDC stop tool , installed it in the number one plug location, then I marked the timing cover and balancer

 

Way back at the top, I noticed an alarming statement: "YELLOW SPARK"!
If the coil wire (ign. 'on') is running through the resistor, the new HEI is getting approximately 8.4 volts DC.
As someone mentioned, a 'jump wire' (for testing only) should be attached from BAT+ to the "ign" tab on the HEI.
If that fails to produce the elusive 'BLUE SPARK'...the module may have been installed 'dry', ignoring the little packet of icky-gooey stuff.

Positive Stop is always used in my shop. (factory TDC is always somewhere other than 'Zero'.) A 'slow' acquaintance of mine (shop owner, yet) burrowed my positive stop
(a hollowed-out and tapped 10 X 1.5 mm. spark plug, with a VW case stud that is adjustable: a HARD STOP.) He cranked the engine over 'til it stopped. (!!?!)
My positive stop was not harmed in this 'operation'. He brought the engine to my shop for repairs...

 

I thought hei distributors got full voltage all of the time unlike the old points distributors. I will readily admit I am not an expert on hei distributors.

 

Yes HEI Distributors require 12 volts but it is in a 55 truck so no telling. Yes, I agree with Vic and others that a TDC check might be in order but a quick check with a timing light won't hurt anything. If he's at number one on the cap and rotor and the timing mark is at about 12 o clock instead of two or three that will tell him something right away. The TDC test is a little bit more technical in nature and may not be necessary Yet.

 

Is there an echo in here?

 

If it is not the correct balancer or pointer, the use of a timing light will only serve to confuse the issue.

 

Thanks for all the feed back...i checked the casting on the block and it reads E189 or 86, i also verified that the HEI is getting 12 volts to the distributor, and they are wired correctly...batt and tach, also the ch***is is of a 79 camaro front end, clipped to a 55 chevy ch***is back end (totally beside the point) but just an fyi. So i backed the distributor by another 5 more degrees, it starts now but sputters...my friend has a timing light, got busy with wifey stuff, so will be by later. I did verify by watching the valves not move on TDC as the video shows, so i am pretty sure my visual reference is spot on...i took someones advice in this post and went 8-12 degrees counter clockwise from the harmonic balancer TDC mark...from all that i have verified, the mark on the Harmonic balancer is correct! (oh, and when i said 8-12 degrees back, i meant i went about 8-12 degrees by manually turning the pulley)

 

Your welcome

 

Thank you Dooley, does that make sense in what i did...it seems to be getting their, hopefully when my friend gets here, we can get timing done

 

Ebbie, You're suggesting he start the diagnostics by doing a TDC check, are you?
We're told this is not a new build and it used to run.

 

Correct, it was running...it was missing so my pops pulles the distributor without marking it, and now i cant get it to start

 

I will chime in as soon as my friend is here, he's on the way...he is pretty savvy with old engines, i will keep u all in the loop

 

Used to run doesn't mean that the pointer or timing marks on the balancer are correct. Lots of people time engines by ear, or by advancing to spark knock and then backing off a bit. And sometimes the ring on the balancer slips.

 

So, you're probably just a little late on timing now. From the pics you've posted and your description, if you have actually done what you say you have, you should be on the right stroke and at least close on timing. Rotate the distributor housing counterclockwise a little bit at a time. This will advance the timing and see what you get. That's presuming you have spark, which I never noticed an answer to. Remember, spark is only one of the pieces of the pie. Gotta have fuel too. I don't know what you have for a fuel system, but you may need to pump the throttle a couple of times or make sure the choke's working.

 

Yes, I know. I wasn't even implying that it had the correct pointer.
You are correct . Some folks use the idle speed, or vacuum, or the sound , or divine intervention, or mysticism , or what ever. But this young fellow doesn't even have a timing light.
I wouldn't want to see him making or buying a piston stop, and trying to use it, at this juncture.
That was my point.

 

well then the "factory" timing marks should be almost straight up ( see the pic ) , not below the water pump(see your pic) . Someone may have swapped a balancer , or someone may have added a timing mark.
But since you can't tell us I'm guessing you don't know either.

The both valves will be closed near the bottom of the intake stroke and remain closed for the remainder of the combustion stroke & thats 180 degrees. They then remain closed for the the power stroke which is again almost 180 degrees before the exhaust valve opens. IF IF IF valves being closed is your land mark, you could miss by 150 crank degrees on either side of TDC and still have the valves closed.

I love threads like this,,,
I've checked everything twice,
Double checked again
Everything is correct
It still won't starts.