If needed you done it a few times already. Lift it out, rotate just a bit to get to the next tooth and drop it in.
NO. points vs electronic ignition opinions is a never ending war. I got rid of a electronic and gained over 5 miles to a gallon. Other guy claims same thing except points. If their is a gain or loss is so minor you cant tell . others disagree.. Ah heck your cam could be so flat there is no way it will start. So wait till you get some hands on experienced help. Just make sure the battery is fully charged for when help does arrive.
No just add this kit to eliminate the points and upgrade. Points are a wear item that has to be adjusted and replaced on an ongoing basis. The kit below gets rid of the need to adjust and maintain things. https://www.holley.com/products/ign...tor_accessories/conversion_kits/parts/2010ACC There really is no debate on points vs electronic, there are no gains with points only drawbacks. Positives of electronic are easier starts, reliability, lack of maintenance, better fuel mileage etc.
No need to convert to electronic ignition just yet - the engine will run on points. No need to worry about the distributor number - anything “rebuilt” and all that goes out the window. No need to pull the distributor and rotate just yet - judging by his video, even if he is off 1 tooth late, there is plenty of room to get the timing close and get it running.
I ran points for plenty of years and my car started with them in minus 20 degree weather in the winter. Heck there will be more problems with the carb getting enough gas in cold weather than the points giving trouble. If they are set correctly with a dwell meter or a feeler gauge you can run an entire YEAR without any trouble. Only thing electronic ignition does is just eliminate the trouble of adjusting them every now and again. You adjust the points first then you adjust the timing and the darn car will start like a champ. The carb and choke set up will give more trouble than those stupid points will. I never got a dime of more fuel mileage changing to electronic ignition that is just a fallacy. Good points good coil good carb don't waste your money unless you want to upgrade. You can set points with 2 business cards and be darn close and the car will run. When that electronic ignition decides not to work that car won't run at all. I have NEVER been stranded on the road because my points were going bad. It just ran crappy until I got home and readjusted. I do not know if the coil has been replaced I have not kept up with this thread but it should shoot a good blue spark if working good. I have electronic ignition a complete MSD set up and I had goofy trouble with it. As long as I cranked the motor it would almost be running IF I kept the key on but the moment I let go of the key the car would stall out. That trouble ended up being a coil as the old one would shoot sparks but they would not shoot past a 1/4 inch and was yellow The moment I put in a new coil it would shoot sparks from 1 inch and was blue, car started right up, so make sure the coil is good or try a different one. This could be the condenser that is connected to the points as this gave me the same goofy trouble where the car just would almost but not start so try a different condenser. This could be your real problem Also the point set up that has the condenser connected to the plate with the points were never that good and I always got the set where they were 2 separate pieces and I always used the performance set of points. This set always would always work better. Don't use the plugs with the big gaps needed unless you decide to use electronic ignition Points can do better with plugs in there that have a .035 gap and no more so make sure the correct plugs are in there. A .045 gap will be hard on the coil and will ask too much from the ignition system especially the points and coil.
No. Please stop telling him to lift the distributor out and move it a tooth. I explained that "being a tooth off" fallacy a page back. He had it in right. There is plenty of adjustment just by rotating the distributor.
Even if you installed the distributor with the balancer mark at 0, if you wanted it at 10*, all you would need to do is move the crank to line the mark up with 10*, then just ROTATE the distributor to line the rotor up with the #1 tower (your self made black mark on the distributor body). DONE. No need to lift the distributor out and move it a tooth.
Jimmy, IMO, a jumper wire from the battery + to the + coil would be more beneficial than another new coil in terms of just starting it.
Mike it's overkill. One distributor tooth is well over 30* of timing. The 350 distributor gear has 14 teeth, 360*/14 = almost 26*. 1* distributor rotation equals 2 degrees at the crank. Once the distributor is in, advancing the timing is simply a matter of turning the distributor. If the engine was running, and you had a light on it, and you wanted to advance the timing, would you stop the engine and pull the distributor out, or would you just rotate the distributor?
I'm always wondering if the engine is set to 70'specs or last engine that used points. Larry has a point that older dist had more advance + that's something I had never realized. Although my distributors have all been replaced with rebuilt units. I haven't checked numbers on current setup. And I will add that my Pertronix in 69 gs takes to long to start the car. Whoever said cam is flat prolly right too. I'll keep quiet for a while but I have to ask this; On my rebuilt 350 bowtie motor where do I set initial timing? Rebuilt dist with points?
I've tried to read (ok, skimmed) this whole thread. There's way too many chiefs trying to help poor Jimmy out, and you're just confusing the bejeebus out of the guy if you can't tell. This isn't rocket science, but you get guys telling someone to do this, but someone says to do that, and then he does both, and nothing good comes of it. Jimmy: I'd recommend picking one or two of the guys on this thread trying to help you and PM them (start a conversation). Get rid of all the other noise going on and get just one opinion and diagnostic trail to follow. Since we're dealing with distributors in Buicks and he's been helping so far, might I suggest sending Larry a message if he'd be open to it.
Bowtie distributors are no different than Buick distributors in that the amount of mechanical advance varies with the year and the engine the distributor was originally installed in. Rebuilt distributor? There's no way for us to know how much mechanical advance is in that particular distributor unless you get the part number and look it up in a Bowtie Chassis manual for that year. So you want to get it (initial timing) right the first time? Easy, decide how much WOT total advance you want to run (neglecting vacuum advance). Then you use a timing light and light weight springs to set that total. Now the initial advance ends up where it has to. You have no choice unless you modify the amount of mechanical advance. This isn't rocket science, it's simple arithmetic.
It depends on what you consider to be “off”. He can certainly be “off a tooth” but the timing can be spot on, it will just look like hack work when the distributor is turned too far one way or another as evidenced by the vacuum advance canister. No need to pull the distributor “yet” just to get it running. Jimmy, do you have or does the fella coming to help you have a dwell meter? If not, you should get one. Set dwell to 30 while cranking, see what happens. You can adjust the dwell w/o cranking the engine if you are worried about the fan, and crank the engine to read the dwell angle. Once that is done, if it still doesn’t start, rotate the distributor clockwise if the dwell was found to be more than 30, or ccw if it was found to be less than 30. As mentioned, it isn’t rocket science, and as also mentioned, make sure the battery is charged.
Nope. You can be off a tooth and it can run fine if there is enough room to physically move the distributor. But it’s still off a tooth unless attention to detail is not important. GM had only one position for where that distributor was to be installed. The reason this is important in general is because on many vehicles (aka not V8 Buick’s), there physically isn’t enough room to move the distributor to compensate for it being off a tooth. So if you didn’t “land” the distributor exactly where it was intended to be, the engine was not going to start. That is why it’s best to develop good habits and get the thing in correctly to begin with. Having a 350 or 455 Buick off a tooth can also require the need for a new vacuum advance hose (not a huge deal) if vacuum advance is being used, and it can also put undo stress on wiring on the later engines that utilized HEI. So IMO, there is only one correct place for the distributor to be, and there is indeed such thing as “being off a tooth”. Semantics?
We are saying the same thing, exactly, and yeah, it is semantics. From what I could see, it was in right, and then he pulled it out and put it back in. Now I don't know.
One of my favorites is in describing radiators. People commonly say 3-core or 4-core, for example. All “regular” radiators have 1 core, 2 tanks and a varying amount of rows. I’ve never seen a 3-core or 4-core radiator but know what everyone means.
