Dopey question #335

[alexjared]

So I'm working on my 73 RR 400ci. I have no idea what's inside the engine as I only bought the car a few years ago. Here's the dopey question which I will qualify after I get some responses: when turning the engine by hand at the balancer for determining TDC, what direction do you spin the crank? Thanks!

 

[Rishi]

you want to turn the engine in the direction it normally operates. from memory, standing in front of the engine looking rearward, this is clockwise.

you can operate the starter solenoid on the fender well (using the screwdriver trick) momentarily to get a gist of which way the engine normally spins.

a trick I recall to know when it's getting close to TDC on cylinder #1 is to follow the #1 spark plug wire back to the distributor cap noting where the #1 position is on the distributor. then, remove the cap, so you can see the direction the rotor is pointing, and turn the engine by hand until the rotor is nearing that #1 position.

 

[58belvedere]

 

[1967coronet]

Both valves will be closed on #1 at TDC .

 

[PurpleBeeper]

So I'm working on my 73 RR 400ci. I have no idea what's inside the engine as I only bought the car a few years ago. Here's the dopey question which I will qualify after I get some responses: when turning the engine by hand at the balancer for determining TDC, what direction do you spin the crank? Thanks!

Clockwise (facing the engine). The other way will just unscrew the harmonic balancer bolt

 

[R413]

The other way will have the valve and ignition timing off due to the slack in the timing chain.

The bolt won't come loose very easy with the spark plugs all out, but they do come loose sometimes.

1 1/4" socket fits the crank bolt.