plaidside

Last night I tried to put the cable seal into the oval hole in the firewall. I first put the cable on the distributor and then tried to force the seal into the hole, it would not go. Then I disconnected the cable and struggled to put the seal into the hole and then attach the cable.
When I did this the cable was at a bad angle and I would have to force the cable down to get the nut on.
It appears that the cable is too close to the bottom of the hole.
Anybody have a similar situation? Any ideas?
Thanks,
Joe

62corvette

I don't see the seal in your pic. It was originally a reasonably hard rubber tube, probably 4" long by 2-2 1/2" od. It sat at an angle to the firewall ca 45 degrees, and extended both into the engine and passenger compartments. It had a thin vinyl-like skin on it.

wmf62

Joe
i don't think 61 had a distributor driven tach, but i could be wrong...

if this is a FI tach drive distributor, on my 62 the firewall hole is round and is in a different location than for a standard tach drive distributor.

BTW, i could never get the boot and clip to fit right, even with the hole in the right place...
Bill

plaidside

I have the seal, which is on the cable under the dash, but me and my buddy last night tried to get it in the hole and the cable on the distributor but could not. I could get the seal in the oval hole but the cable was on such an angle to the distributor I did not want to force it.

i don't think 61 had a distributor driven tach, but i could be wrong...
if this is a FI tach drive distributor, on my 62 the firewall hole is round and is in a different location than for a standard tach drive distributor.
BTW, i could never get the boot and clip to fit right, even with the hole in the right place...
Bill

58-61 high horse had the distributor drive and the low horse had the generator drive.
58-61 tach cable hole was oval and used a special cable and a large round seal that pushed throught the oval hole on an angle to seal it up.

Joe

62corvette

61 and 62 FI tach cable holes in the firewall were very different depending on the year.

Pilot Dan

Joe, maybe you could egg out the center of the new rubber seal a bit to help with the cable angle and fit. Do you have the cable angle correct as it enters the passenger side by supporting it with the proper dash clips and routing ect.... per the AIM? Pilot Dan

wmf62

guess i've never seen one of those... thanks.
Bill

corvette-62

Joe:

You have a couple things going on here. First, '61 Corvettes had a generator drive tach. Second, you seem to have a '62-74 tach drive distributor installed. If you are keeping the distributor on the engine then you can 1) cut a round hole in the firewall and fabricate it like the '62, or 2) buy the correct tach cable that runs from your generator through the firewall to the tach. F.Y.I. ...Since the body style of the 61 & 62 are similar, you might get away with using a '62 tach cable if you plan on hooking up that tach drive distributor. But be aware that the '62 tach cable length was a "one year only" design. I hope this helps.

62corvette

Not correct! Notice the distributor in his pics. It has an oil line. It is an FI distributor, tach drive, correct for 58-62 Corvettes. The firewall hole, the distributor, the tach cable are all correct as pictured for his car.

mashinter

Do you have the aluminum spacer under the distributor?

wmf62

it has to be there, distributor won't tighten down if it isn't..
Bill

plaidside

As 62corvette stated my distributor and hole in firewall is correct.

58-61 high horse had the distributor drive and the low horse had the generator drive.
58-61 tach cable hole was oval and used a special cable and a large round seal that pushed throught the oval hole on an angle to seal it up.

I have a 62 cable but the distributor end is square and the 58-61 end is round with a raised tang.

Thanks wmf62 for you response to mashinter.

It seems the problem is the tachometer cable is too close to the bottom of the hole in the firewall. It looks like I have to raise the engine to center the cable in the hole.
Anybody have a picture of their cable coming through the hole without the seal in place?

Joe

wmf62

Joe
if you get desperate you can have a new inner cable made with the right end for the 62 cable assy.

but, that won't raise anything... BUT, raising the engine would be simple enough
Bill

JerryJ

Had similar problem only my cable was too high in the hole....

Then I remembered that we had added a spacer to the trans mount to change the angle of the drive shaft..

Put a smaller spacer in trans mount, which brought the engine down and the cable ended up in the middle of the opening.....

Hope this somewhat helps.......