kaj750
Well-Known Member
Thanks, guys, for your continued patience. It's nice dealing with people my own age, for once.
Detonation after distributor cap install.
- Thread starter kaj750
- Start date
I'm guessing your younger but honestly have no idea.... I was born in the 50's... Soooooo.....
kaj750
Well-Known Member
I turn 50 this year. I'm used to being on forums with a bunch of kids who only care about how much adhesive carbon fiber they can stick to their cars.
I never fully appreciated having electronic ignition, coil unplacoma etc as much as I do right now. Lol
I mentioned earlier that All the cars I built from the ground up have been OBD1 at the oldest. The one car I had that ran a distributor was a lot simpler. The distributor only went into the cam one way and the cap only went on one way.
All this freedom of how to line things up is learning experience for me
kaj750
Well-Known Member
5:00 while looking from which position? The one shown in the picture? With the shaft at that angle, my rotor is either pointed at 8:00 or 2:00.
If you are talking about from the front of the engine, then yes the rotor's pointed at 5:00.
Current update:
Rotated engine around to my original starting position. Engine is a top dead center, rotor is where I originally started. I'm still verifying top dead center with the spark plug hole, but general question for clarification: If the engine was a top dead center of the non-compression stroke, the distributor would be flipped around 180°, correct?
Anyway, rotated intermediate shaft as advised above.
Rotor now points to 5:00 if looking at it from the front of the engine bay.
I can't view the replies while typing this from my phone, but if I remember correctly, I want to move the pick up coil and the number one spark plug wire location to where the rotor is now pointing. The 5:00 position, as in my picture below. Am I close??
I think I am learning enough to fill in the gaps in the information I'm receiving (the basic knowledge and terminology I'm expected to know already). Lol
**edit: I FINALLY found installation instructions. Now things are making a bit more sense. I'm lining up the coil pick up to the nearest slot of the shutter wheel. Lining up the wires on the right spot. Will report back.
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kaj750
Well-Known Member
Update number two:
Cranked the car over for a while with no result. Turns out my " helper" forgot to plug in the distributor. Plugged it in and promptly got a backfire out the exhaust lol that you guys might enjoy that a bit.
Continue cranking. No result. Wondering if I ruined the plugs has number one was pretty dark when I took it out
Running out of battery life. My battery tender is away add another location at this time. I'm probably going to retire the car until further notice.
Cranked the car over for a while with no result. Turns out my " helper" forgot to plug in the distributor. Plugged it in and promptly got a backfire out the exhaust lol that you guys might enjoy that a bit.
Continue cranking. No result. Wondering if I ruined the plugs has number one was pretty dark when I took it out
Running out of battery life. My battery tender is away add another location at this time. I'm probably going to retire the car until further notice.
Charge the battery, Static time the thing by getting #1 on TDC. Pull the cap and line #1 on the cap with where the rotor is pointing and install the plug wires in the correct order and direction of rotation/ correct rotation. THere should be no reason for it not to start unless you have bad parts or a Holley carb with a blown power valve.
kaj750
Well-Known Member
That's exactly what I did. I lined everything up, made a mark on the distributor, put the cap on, put number one wire right on the mark. Number one wire is exactly where the rotor was lined up.
Wires are in correct order assuming my engine doesn't run clockwise for some weird reason
Carburetor is a brand new Edelbrock.
Car ran fine before I was dumb and decided to swap the coil and wires out for new ones. Then broke the distributor caps I had to replace it.
I'm now back to the original coil, new spark plug wires, new distributor cap, original distributor,
I'm going to wait until I have a chance to charge the battery up and then let this thing crank over for a bit.
At this point, I'm sure it's flooded.
Also, I have been spending all of my free time messing with this thing. It is beyond frustrating seeing how it mostly ran fine before I decided to mess with it. I think it's better that I step away for a while and come back.
Geoff 2
Well-Known Member
Those Unilite dists got the nickname Unidark....for obvious reasons. Only realised you were using one when I saw post #45. This could well be the cause of det if something has failed in the module.
I would replace the dist with a Chrys elect dist & use a 4 pin HEI module with it. Pics & wiring on the web & have also seen on this website.
I would replace the dist with a Chrys elect dist & use a 4 pin HEI module with it. Pics & wiring on the web & have also seen on this website.
Some electronic ignitions are sensitive to voltage levels. If your battery is weak it may not trigger it. Need to fully charge the battery - although that probably is not the greater issue.
kaj750
Well-Known Member
Another update:
I took everything out and started over. I moved the intermediate shaft to the suggested position. I installed the distributor per the instructions (I can't believe I had such a hard time finding them), then re-wired everything. No start.
Pulled the dist and rotated 180*. Car fired right up and runs better than ever with the new cap, plug, and wires. NOT TOUCHING ANYTHING ELSE LOL.
I have a perfect 750rpm idle and timing is holding perfect. Wanted to take it for a test drive, but it was dark and now, all of a sudden, the headlights and right half of the gauge cluster lights no longer work.
I swear if it's not one thing, it's another. LOL.
I took everything out and started over. I moved the intermediate shaft to the suggested position. I installed the distributor per the instructions (I can't believe I had such a hard time finding them), then re-wired everything. No start.
Pulled the dist and rotated 180*. Car fired right up and runs better than ever with the new cap, plug, and wires. NOT TOUCHING ANYTHING ELSE LOL.
I have a perfect 750rpm idle and timing is holding perfect. Wanted to take it for a test drive, but it was dark and now, all of a sudden, the headlights and right half of the gauge cluster lights no longer work.
I swear if it's not one thing, it's another. LOL.
kaj750
Well-Known Member
I'm actually about to pull everything and go with EFI/crank trigger/etc. All this old crap is starting to be more of a problem than it's worth. But for now, I'm glad that I can drive the car in the mean time... during daylight hours.
Welcome to Mopars..... Glad it's made some progress.... But at least for a while get use to one step forward, two steps back...
kaj750
Well-Known Member
I've had the car since Oct of '22 and that's how it's been the ENTIRE time. "Yes! I got it fixed. Wait, what? When did this stop working??".
The car is going to sit for a while. As it turns out, electrical is my worst subject (even more so than my carb and ignition issues) so I'll bring in some help to deal with it, unless I find a bit of extra time to tackle it, myself.
It can be aggravating, but when you get it all sorted to the point it stays sorted it can be satisfying & how ever it goes your gonna learn stuff.... So it's educational...
At this website you may download a service manual for your car. Don't know if you said what car you have, been dipping in and out to see how it was going. For engine trans and rear differential you only need a service a year or two of your car. Maybe 5 years +/- even. Service Manuals – MyMopar
kaj750
Well-Known Member
I actually found a printed version, so have the book on the way. I'm old school and like to have greasy, oily pages to touch haha. It should help me with my electrical issues.
Leave it alone. The old stuff is fine when assembled correctly as you have just seen.
Doug
kaj750
Well-Known Member
Well, the car is still detonating which was my original problem. So that hasn't gone away, despite everything checking out. I'm going to toss in the old spark plugs just to see what happens. I'm honestly tired of messing with it, for a while.
If I find the solution (it's going to be something ridiculously simple, of course) I'll post back.
Everyone: Thanks for all the help!
Pull out a little timing
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