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Not sure what I'm doing wrong and need some help. I replaced my distributor with a cheap HEI a couple years ago. It was running okay, but the angle of the shaft caused my tach cable to break. So I decided to try and remedy this, but not sure how. Currently my distributor is turn counter clockwise so far that I'm up against the wiper motor. I have not room to turn it any further. This alone tells me I have an issue, but I don't know enough to fix it. End goal is for the tach cable entry point to not be 90 degrees from where it should be and to get the distributor to now be up against the wiper motor. Please know that I am completely clueless with what I'm doing and trying to learn and figure it out. I feel like it should be a simple fix.
Also, it will run, but I'm not sure it's running the best it can as I can't adjust the timing any further due to it hitting the wiper motor.
From: At my Bar drinking and wrenching in Lafayette Colorado
Your distributor is installed at least one tooth off. A correctly installed HEI looks like this:
The C3 Vette was never designed to accommodate a tach drive HEI, so if you decide to do that silly mod, you will have problems with tach drive cable angle. Put the stock distributor back in the car and set it up right with the Service Bulletin distributor orientation.
You may be a tooth off as stated above. Maybe not. I just installed hei on my 72 last weekend and at 34° of advance the vacuum advance housing is almost touching the nearest intake manifold runner. The tach line doesn't seem toooo extremely out of place but was thinking about purchasing a 90° adapter for it from a vendor site.
Your distributor is installed at least one tooth off. A correctly installed HEI looks like this:
The C3 Vette was never designed to accommodate a tach drive HEI, so if you decide to do that silly mod, you will have problems with tach drive cable angle. Put the stock distributor back in the car and set it up right with the Service Bulletin distributor orientation.
Long story for how I ended up with HEI, but at this point, I would rather not put the time into putting the original distributor, coil, buy/replace new wires and remove/re-gap plugs. I feel like the solution is simple to get the HEI right, aside from possibly the tach, which might require a 90 degree adapter, which is simple to install.
When the cap is off, the distributor is pointing directly at the #1 plug. With the cap on and the car running (pretty good), it pointing closer to 3 or 5. So I'm assuming I need to rotate the distributor clockwise one tooth, correct?
Mine was an hei when I got it several years ago, decided to have Lars rebuild and set up my OEM, then when I installed it, the tach attachment point did not line up so good. Heard that the 90 degree adapters weren't so great to use, so I applied the service bulletin and everything was everything. Lars knows his stuff.
Mine was an hei when I got it several years ago, decided to have Lars rebuild and set up my OEM, then when I installed it, the tach attachment point did not line up so good. Heard that the 90 degree adapters weren't so great to use, so I applied the service bulletin and everything was everything. Lars knows his stuff.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I know Lars knows his stuff. I'm just trying to avoid adding to my project list if not needed. Can you give me more info on this service bulletin mentioned? Where can I locate it. I really don't want to go back to OEM, but then again, the projects never end on a 50 year old car, so what's one more?
Take all of the wires off and move them all one position counterclockwise........then turn the distributor clockwise to get it in a better position. Simple.
No bulletin needed. Make sure you reset the timing per Lars papers.....
Take all of the wires off and move them all one position counterclockwise........then turn the distributor clockwise to get it in a better position. Simple.
No bulletin needed. Make sure you reset the timing per Lars papers.....
Jebby
Fantastic! Sounds like the simple fix I'm looking for.
Heard that the 90 degree adapters weren't so great to use,
I heard this also, 15yrs and 25k+ miles ago, AFTER I had installed one. I could not in any way get my spedo cable to come anywhere close to going on streight, even when when the distributor was turned as far as possible. Mine still works fine.
Maybe I got lucky, but mine was a good decision.
I also have heard many people tell us not to lube the spedo cable. Supossedly, the grease will work it's way up into the spedo gauge and mess it up. After a spedo rebuild and a new inner cable, iI developed eratic spedo function. So, I lightly oiled the upper half of my cable and lightly greased the bottom half, which solved the problem, and again, it still works fine, and no grease has migrated up to the spedo. My thinking was/is, are there any other mechanical parts that we don't grease???
I run mine in this position, just enough room to get the timing where I want it (34 deg max advance with alloy heads and the fuel available here) HEI dist on '70 SBC
and nice run for tach cable. I have read that the 90 deg adaptor for the tach cable puts too much load on the drive gear in the distributor.
Take all of the wires off and move them all one position counterclockwise........then turn the distributor clockwise to get it in a better position. Simple.
No bulletin needed. Make sure you reset the timing per Lars papers.....
Timing/distributor issues
