You are probably one plug off. The following is the "all by yourself method, no helpers available". The cap is keyed to the distributor base (you know that already) So after you take out distributor, mark on the base where rotor points to no.1, take out all plugs!, disconnect battery!. Put a piece of kleenex in no 1 spark plug hole, just enough to plug hole but not a big glob but not tiny either or it will get sucked in (won't hurt anything)(1/3 to 1/2 of a kleenex). you will hear it and see it blow out. Rotate engine BY HAND clockwise until the kleenex blows out hard. You will then see the timing mark on the harmonic balancer is at or just past the 0 mark on the timing tab. (the "saw tooth" tab is 2 deg each valley, each peak) If the balancer line went a little past 0, go around twice stopping right at 0. With cap off distributor , rotate the distributor (which is off and in your hand) CW until you are one plug shy of no. 1 (45 deg)(that's no. 2 plug, 18436572) this is approximate place to place it because the distributor will rotate when placed down into the hole as it engages the oil pump rod/gear) After turning to one shy of no. 1, look at the oil pump slot on the distributor which I believe is in line with the rotor. Anyway use a screwdriver or hack saw blade and rotate oil pump shaft to align with where the dist. slot is. then lower it down in, let it settle and rotate until the clamp flange is bottomed out. If it's not pointing to your mark, do it again. As far as where to clamp dist., No. 1 will generally be pointing forward, keep the clamp screw a litle loose. Put all the plugs back on, dist. cap on, wires all checked and on, and start, time it to 6 BTDC. with vacuum pluged at hose at dist end. let me know what happens. Worst case, bad distributor components, ignition short, harmonic balancer rubber isolator slipped, timing chain slipped/broken gear/etc., and more. Make sure you put just a little gas in carb, don't flood it. work the choke by hand, maybe carb needs adjust also. float and etc. P.S. the reason you take all plugs out is so you can rotate engine with a socket on the balancer bolt without much effort or stress on bolt. you can also leave all the electrics hooked up and bump the engine with starter, but that is a lot more screwing around and hard to do alone and you NEVER stop on zero. This first way is dead nuts.
Last edited by bartamos; 08/01/2010 1:07 AM.
