New HEI distrubutor instilation...question

[mattman4x4]

New HEI distributor instillation...and the story to go with it!
Hi
I just bought my first engine part for my truck it’s a Jegs HEI distributor and coil. I am tired of tapping on my old one with a golf club to get it to start. My question is does any body have any tips for installing a distributor and getting the timing correct?
If you are interested in my saga of the distributor please keep reading! This is a long post.

Well the truck totally died (even with the tapping). So I called my father in law (retired mechanic three hours away), so he starts to go through the trouble shooting process over the phone. We narrow it down to possibly the coil or the module. So he mails me a new Ac-Delco module. I get it put in…battery is dead. I get a new battery; tap tap with the golf club starts nada. I call my father in law; he drives three hours on a weekend and takes 5 minutes and figures out what I did wrong. New guy mistake, I crossed one of the spark plug wires. He uncrosses it and it starts right up He goes home that night. Now I go out the next morning and want to take the truck for a spin, it had been sitting for about three weeks. I try to start it….starts with out taping but idles rough and dies. Try again same thing. The only way to keep it running is to keep the gas pedal to the floor. Still running like s*&t, my wife and I try to take the truck around the block, it stalls 6 times. O.K. now what is wrong? We most probably thing it’s the fuel filter (thanks to the Chilton manual I have for the truck). So I try to take the fuel filter out of the carburetor, turns out I do not have any wrenches that fit it. Father in law (the man with the tools) to the rescue again. When my wife and I were up there visiting he gives me the proper fitting wrenches to remove the fuel line and the housing for the filter. So the next weekend I pull out the filter, and get a replacement, along with a new air and oil filter.
Now I have put the new fuel filter in, and air filter then change the oil. Connect the battery and it fires right up. She was purring like a kitten! Just for safe measure I took the truck out for a spin, filled up the tank, and added a bottle of dry gas. Ah now we are cooking. The next week I go to drive the truck, dam if is not back to its old self. I get out the golf club tap, tap, tap… starts up. I lost my temper and patients’ which brings me back to the Jegs distributor.

 

[southernspeed]

There's only one way really, like it says in the manual. No short cuts really.
Get Cylinder 1 on TDC, copression stroke. Drop your dizzy in so that the rotor arm ends up pointing at No'1 plugwire terminal. That's your basic set up. Now just strobe it as normal. For a non-TBI motor start with 8* BTDC with the vacuum line pluged. That should do ya. You can try and turn it up to 10* or 12* but wuth crappy gas I'd stick to 8*.

 

[3 on the tree]

I just don't get the whole TDC #1 cylinder thing. If it is a new motor being put together for the first time, then all that makes sense. I have changed more dist than I can count. If your new dist uses the same cap as the old dist, take the cap loose, with the wires still attached, and lay it aside. Look at where your vac advance is pointing and remember that. Now look at where your rotor is pointing and remember that. Pull the old dist. Partially insert the new dist, so the vac advance is pointing where the orig one was. Now turn the rotor so it is pointing where the orig rotor was pointing. Lower the dist down into the block, holding onto the rotor. Wiggle the rotor just a little bit, till the dist drops all the way down into the block. Install holddown, and cap and fire up. Sometimes the oil pump drive will move on you when pulling the dist, so peek down into the block w/a flashlight to make sure the drive slot lines up with the end of the new dist shaft.

 

[Blazer1AB]

I'm with him ^. I put a distributor in yesterday using that process and it took me all of 15 minutes.