You never know what happened before you got it either.
probably need a distributor...recommendations?
- Thread starter swisherred
- Start date
swisherred
Senior Member
Ok. Took it apart...the play actually seems good. It was the rotor up and down play that worried me but it seems to work that way. It looks like new points will make a big difference. I'm concerned about the springs though. I have one small and one large on the mechanical advance..which moves freely. The large spring sits loose on the pins. Lie its just sitting there with zero tension until the weights are 1/2 way out...then it makes contact on the perches. Is that normal? Should it be replaced?
swisherred
Senior Member
Ok...so obviously I know nothing about distributors and curves and springs but I found a few very good articles that explained it and even about the lash in my heavier spring being normal. I think I'm just going to replace the points and see what it does with proper timings now that it is all cleaned and spinning freely.
Try it just make sure you use a fan head on the points to hold it down or the arm will hit the screw. Just went through this with a guy that could not figure his out. Looked up the number it is a 66/67 440 4bbl non CAP distributor should be fine for a stock 4bbl motor.
swisherred
Senior Member
I went ahead and replaced the points with blue streaks and condenser and cap and rotor. Set the timing by vacuum and it runs much better. I can barely get a signal from my timing light so I'm thinking weak coil. It seems to like about 15deg btc at idle and it took a long time to get it to idle decently at 700rpm. I think the carb needs some tweaking but it no longer dives when giving it gas and seems to run ok for 50 yrs old and 100k. I also put in fresh 93 octane non ethanol gas.
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swisherred
Senior Member
I was getting a steady 28 dwell....but that was at .018 point gap. Anything less than that and I would drop to 25.
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Open it up to thirty so when it wears it drops a bit. Glad to hear it is good now.
swisherred
Senior Member
It's better but still not quite right. I think it's in the carb now...could just be a worn motor. Getting 18" of vacuum at idle on the manifold port but it bounces some...could still be the timing chain. Going to replace that soon.
swisherred
Senior Member
I think mine says 28 to 32
28.4 32.4
Unless I missed it, I don't see any mention of the condition of the engine harness.
Is it original/unaltered?
Have you physically inspected every wire for continuity/wear/defects?
All grounds good?
A now 52ish year old wiring harness has seen a lot of temperature cycling, and possibly/probably some cobbling from previous repairs.
Replacement engine harnesses are available from Evans Wiring Harnesses.
After I rebuilt the dash in the Silver Custom, I had a hot restart issue. Turned out to be timing off a bit. Try as I might, I could not rotate the distributor enough to get what I needed.
Another set of eyes discovered that the coil was not located in the bracket properly causing the distributor to stop before full travel.
A few adjustments, and it ran like a rocket.
Hope the input helps.
John
Is it original/unaltered?
Have you physically inspected every wire for continuity/wear/defects?
All grounds good?
A now 52ish year old wiring harness has seen a lot of temperature cycling, and possibly/probably some cobbling from previous repairs.
Replacement engine harnesses are available from Evans Wiring Harnesses.
After I rebuilt the dash in the Silver Custom, I had a hot restart issue. Turned out to be timing off a bit. Try as I might, I could not rotate the distributor enough to get what I needed.
Another set of eyes discovered that the coil was not located in the bracket properly causing the distributor to stop before full travel.
A few adjustments, and it ran like a rocket.
Hope the input helps.
John
swisherred
Senior Member
Most of it seems to be pretty good but I did notice the connector on the distributor wire feels like it could have several broken strands. I will be replacing that and see if that helps. I haven't messed with anything else in the bay yet besides the bulkhead connectors...but I will go through it. Ty.
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james bernard
New Member
I have a 67 Polara small block car that I bought 12 years ago. I bought that Petronix conversion within the first hour of owning it. Couldn’t be happier! Literally haven’t touched it since other than replacing the cap. Highly recommend it to anyone! I think it was about $75.00 bucks back then.
cbarge
World Famous Barge in a Budget
I did electronic in my 318 powered 71 coronet. That car did not need a re-curve. But my 440 68 Ny'er and two 383 powered C's had to get re curved.
swisherred
Senior Member
I replaced the lead wire on the cap and no real change. Still can't get a clean signal for my timing light to read. Going to get a new coil and go from there. It runs decent but I know it can be better. I will look at recurving it after I know the stock components are working so I have a baseline.
Weird that the timing light wont get a clean signal. Just for sake of it put it on another wire and see how it acts. Inductive timing light?
swisherred
Senior Member
I get a clean signal on some wires buy not others. Recent wires and plugs, new cap and rotor..going to pull the plus and see if they are fouled. I hear a nose that is either a miss or an exhaust leak.
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