1969 Chrysler - 383 timing question

[peiguy23]

I replaced my points and factory coil with a Pertronix Igniter and Flamethrower coil. It has made the car run so much better.

I've read posts here about timing and they mostly all say to set it at 12 and that it should be 38 - 42 when advanced.

I've tried setting it at 10, 12 and 14 and when revving it up to 2500 - 3000 it doesn't advance past 30.

Car starts well, runs well at idle, putting around town and at highway speeds. Should I be concerned about not getting over 30?

 

[Davea Lux]

I replaced my points and factory coil with a Pertronix Igniter and Flamethrower coil. It has made the car run so much better.

I've read posts here about timing and they mostly all say to set it at 12 and that it should be 38 - 42 when advanced.

I've tried setting it at 10, 12 and 14 and when revving it up to 2500 - 3000 it doesn't advance past 30.

Car starts well, runs well at idle, putting around town and at highway speeds. Should I be concerned about not getting over 30?

Sounds like either the vacuum advance is not working or the centrifical advance is not working. Disconnect the vacuum advance and plug the line, check the timing as before. If you are still getting 30 degrees of total advance, the centrifical advance is working, if not it is probably stuck. Most Mopar distributors have a piece of felt in the top of the distributor under the rotor. This felt should have a few drops put on it each time the points were changed, about every 10k miles, this keeps the advance mechanism from sticking. If the vacuum advance has failed, either the line to it is disconnected, hooked to the wrong port on the carb or the diaphragm in the vacuum advance canister is leaking.

I suspect in this case the centrifical advance is probably the problem. The lack of full advance will mean that your vehicle probably is getting less than ideal fuel mileage, but other than that less than full advance won't hurt anything. You may need to have the distributor disassembled to repair the centrifical advance if giving it a shot of oil does not fix the problem.

Dave

 

[413]

All this “upgrading” to whatever tricky ignition box of the month. I’ve yet to see any threads on cleaning or lubricating the internals of the distributor.

 

[CBODY67]

Usually, the total advance number happens at over 4000rpm, unless the distributor has some weaker springs in it. With the stock distributor, check the FSM for the distributor advance specs. With an aftermarket distributor, check the instruction sheet to see what the advance is for the particular set of springs installed by them. THEN aim for the 36-40degrees BTDC total timing. The total timing amount will be with the vac advance unhooked, simulating WOT advance.

With the engine stopped, remove the cap and turn it to move the advance weights to see if they might be stuck or "tight". The rotor should move a good bit when you try to rotate it in the advance direction.

There is a "disassemble and reassemble" section in the distributor section of the FSM, as I recall.

Enjoy!
CBODY67

 

[Davea Lux]

www.dave78chieftain.com/Dodge_Electron03.html

This covers service proceedures for both point type distributors and electronic types.

Dave