The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 283 hei timing

hey guys. I timed my 61 last night and it running a lot better but it has a hard time spinning over fast enough to crank now. I set it to 8deg with the vacuum line off and plugged and rechecked it a few times. it started up this morning when it was cold but it still didn't crank like it did yesterday. once I ran it once I coulnt get it to spin fast enough. I backed of the disi a little and it cranked up once but not when I tried to restart it. any thoughts

8 degrees shouldn't make it kick back. Make sure your bat. is strong & the cables are good with heavy enough gauge. The starter may be draging.

My thoughts are first of a deficiency in the cranking system.
Does the starter spin the engine in a normal lively manner when the spark is interrupted by disconnecting the switch wire at the dist.??
Second thought is that the 8 deg static advance(probably 4 is spec)should mean no problem to a 283 unless you are setting from a balancer which has incorrect reference marks and the 8 deg indicated is actually 20 or thereabouts.there are a couple of reasons the references could be in error and a quick and easy ballpark check could be done by feeling the piston position along with viewing the valve overlap on the #1 or #6 cylinder.
Have you been listening when Jerry talked about using the valve overlap @ TDC to check cam timing, TDC position, and a reference position for valve adjustment?
If we are going to be doing engine work and troubleshooting engine problems we need to get a good grasp of the overlap at TDC thing as it can be a powerful problem solving tool as well as ready proof when cam timing comes in question.That goes for gas or diesel from Acura to Zetor.

whoops. It looks like I have a charging problem. I checked the battery last night and it was right at 12 but this afternoon it was a little low so I put the charger on there for an hour and ir fired right up. Then, I noticed the generator light was on. Is there a tech tip for putting a one wire alternator in? whoever put the alternator in left wires hanging all over the place and since I am color blind it makes it kind of hard to trace them.

A one wire alt. only needs a heavy gauge wire going to the bat circuit. If it has that connection & is going around & not charging it is defective. The ind. light will not be effective with this system. A voltmeter on the dash would be the best way to monitor it.

I don't have a one wire setup. I have a jumble of wires with an external regulator and an alternator that looks like it has an internal regulator too (just guessing from the plug style). I havn't messed with it because it worked but if its broke now what can I eliminate from the mess and how do I wire it in.