New distributer and coil?
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 26
Likes: 0
From: New Richmond Wisconsin
New distributer and coil?
Hey there, so heres the issue... I pulled the engine and tranny on my son's '76 and here is what happened.... I bought a chrome dress up kit for the engine from Jegs and I had it sitting there in the packaging and what not and I had an over zealous helper who took it upon himself to take off the valve covers, intake, DISTRIBUTOR AND COIL.... without checking with me first. Now what do I do? I know there is a certain way to take this apart without disturbing the timing and things. With that said, now that it's out, what do you suggest for a really good dist and coil? I want to get a new one with better performance than stock without spending a lot... my buddy pulled the dist which had an "Accel Super Coil" #140003... I don't like the looks of it, for one thing it looked crooked sitting there... I want good one that someone who knows will look at it and say "wow... Nice" know what I mean? thanks and now that it's out without taking it out right, how do I go about putting the new one in and dealing with the timing, or am I wrong here about this? I should mention the engine is a 350...
Last edited by Marine93; Jan 8, 2013 at 12:14 AM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 6,422
Likes: 591
From: McHenry Illinois
For a mild performance engine, there's little to no gain from the expensive looking distributors. Those that will look and say, wow nice upgrade, are not in the know!! There is performance to be gained by making sure the timing advance curve in the distributor is set up correctly. As for putting the distributor back in, I could get all wordy and explain it, but Lars has a paper on the subject that is very good. Email him and request it v8fastcars@msn.com
Team Owner
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 38,923
Likes: 1,482
From: Southbound
Cruise-In II Veteran
Did you have the engine set at TDC #1 when you pulled it? 76s had HEI. The coil is in the top of the distributlor cap. Set #1 at TDC on the compression stroke, install the distributor, and align the stake marks on the distributor and intake manifold. That should get you close enough to start the engine.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 20,914
Likes: 962
From: I tend to be leery of any guy who doesn't own a chainsaw or a handgun.
Unless there's something mechanical wrong with the stock distributor, you're wasting good money buying an aftermarket setup.
'75 and Mike have good ideas on tweaking the advance curve and getting it reinstalled.
Let us know if you run into any difficulty getting the distributor set up.
'75 and Mike have good ideas on tweaking the advance curve and getting it reinstalled.
Let us know if you run into any difficulty getting the distributor set up.
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 2,590
Likes: 403
From: Nashville TN
St. Jude Donor '09
Just rebuild what you have. I tore mine down, shimmed the shaft, replaced coil and electronic module (Pertronix FlameThower), replaced cap/rotor, replaced weights/springs and recurved for performance. It's not very difficult and all the info can be found on forum and in Lars paper.
