The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Distributor question

What is involved in rotating the distributor body in my 235 so the electrical connection from the distributor to the coil is not in close contact with the valve cover? If it is too complicated, I'll leave it as is. I tried to make sense of the shop manual instructions for distributor assembly, but would prefer not to remove the valve cover if possible. It probably is fine as is, but I worry about it arcing against the valve cover. Does it require totally removing the distributor? Thanks.

Loosen the clamp at the bottom of the distributor housing, rotate the housing so the connector points away from the engine, and retime the points to fire the #1 cylinder with the housing in its new position. You'll need to swap the plug wires around to coordinate the firing of #1 with the new rotor/cap relationship.

Get the #1 cylinder to top dead center of the compression stroke, (both valves closed) and give the housing about 1/2 turn to put the connector away from the engine. With the pointer and ball aligned in the hole back above the starter, rotate the distributor housing clockwise until the points close, then back up until they just barely open. Lock the distributor housing down in that position, and use whatever distributor cap tower the rotor aligns with as #1. Then follow clockwise with the other plug wires as 5-3-6-2-4. The engine should start and run from that point, and the timing can be tweaked as necessary for best performance.
Jerry

Jerry, is your instruction a 2-stage process (paragraph 1 and then paragraph #2), or is the entire instruction in the 2nd paragraph? Also, will the distributor rotate 1/2 turn (180 degrees) with the shaft still mated to the oil pump, or does it have to be lifted out in order to make a 180 degree turn? Sorry for the confusion, but I want to make sure I do this right. Also, I just checked and I believe it is close to TDC right now. I can see a triangle on the flywheel and it is close to lined up with the pointer. Can't see the b-b, but does it sound close? The rotor is close to centered on #1 as it sits.

The second paragraph is actually the procedure. The distributor housing doesn't have to be removed- - -just loosen the clamp that holds the housing to the vacuum advance and turn the housing about 180 degrees. Then you'll have to re-set the timing and plug wire routing to make a different cap tower align with the #1 plug. The pointer/ball alignment happens twice, once when #1 is on compression, and again one turn of the crankshaft later when #6 is in firing position, so it's an absolute necessity to know which cylinder is on the compression stroke. If the rotor is pointed to the #1 plug wire right now, just turn the distributor housing half a turn and rearrange the plug wires accordingly.
Jerry

Great! Thanks for the help Jerry. Much appreciated.