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PLZ HELP chevy 350 quadrajet, Unilite distibutor. WONT IDLE IN GEAR

i tried moving it a tooth or 2 both ways and it gets worst. this is the best it's run yet. when i get to idle at 1200 rpms with 35* of timing and now when i shift it into gear it barely stays running at 5-600 rpms but not long. and it only stays runnning in gear like every other time i try? :confused: :confused:
 
same set up as ures and had same symptoes. my buddy did the dist install and wires. turns out the wires were 1 off and dist was 180 off. pulled dist reverified TDC installed dist and wired- fired right up and ran great.
 
what do you mean wires were one off? did you just move them over 1 place? how was the oil pump slot facing? was it lined up directly center with motor or was it lined up with like where the kickdown cable bracket is??
 
Wires on off means just that .

Pull cap , turn engine over to TDC on the firing stroke , see where rotor points , attach wires in 18436572 order with odds on drivers side and evens on passenger side .

Its gotta be something simple . We all have had that one engine run bad until we found it , and went "duh" to ourselves .

And don't worry about the carb yet , until it runs on its own . Then it should need fine tuning on the screws .

Depending on year , it can idle at 600 rpm idle nuetral , and 500 rpm in gear , thats what my 83 spec'd .

You'll get it :D
 
well my logic is its not important what way ure oil pump slot is. move it if u need to- i did. TDC is important. and yes they were 1 off on the dist (8 was firing when 1 was supposed to) to top it off it was 180ish off. it ran the excatly the same as u decribd. even spit fire a few times at me
 
i like mine running at 550-600- make it sound like a race car and i like the shake-keeps me awake
 
kind of a dumb thing to mention, but do you have the proper timing tab for the balancer. if you get a balancer for a motor with electronic spark control (i think) then the mark on the balancer lines up with strobe hole at about 12 o clock. regular distributor balancer has mark cut to line up with degreed tab off to one side of motor. I have seen this before and the timing appeared to be "off" by 30 to 40 degrees. ? just a thought
 
i got the timing tab from the guy who built the motor.i just warrantied out my carb and put a new carb on it.but didnt have long to run it and mess with it. and tried the points firing order on the distributor and that didnt work it just spit fuel out of the carb. i called lopers and told them my problems and he said the distributor is fine and that he thinks its a vaccuum leak ethier in the carb or intake. what was funny earlier we sprayed the intake on the sides and the idles seemed to drop and sputter a couple of times then it didnt do it anymore. im not sure if maybe just some overspray got to the carb or what. but i got an old Hei distributor im goin to try to put in to see if its the distributor.or if im doin somthing wrong with it.
 
it dosent spit anything if i have it advanced 30* but the highest i can get it to idle is 1500rpms with the idle screw turned all the way in. and even with it idleing at that it still dies when i put it in gear. :confused:
 
yep, ure prob i think is sparkwires and/or timing though. i was just saying about restor cause mine broke and i jumped it- lost computer on dist so have to order new one now-$100 bucks :mad: so don tever jump it!
 
wouldnt it idle higher then 1200 rpms with the idle screw all the way in even with the wires on wrong? it seems to run smooth when i give it gas.
 
not shure why, but mine was the same, as soon as in drive wouldnt run worth a darn, then it would warm up and wouldnt stay running at all in drive( a block later i found that one out)
 
i just tried to hook up the volt meter to it and it seems like i have a bad ground. i hook the red post to the - side of the coil and put the black one whre i got the ground bolted to and even the hoop on the wire and nuthin. the only way i get a reading is if i jam it hard inbetween them.
 
I too had a miss after my recent engine rebuild, which after pulling the intake and making sure there wasn't any leaks. Tracked it down later as one of my rockers had been tightened down too much :doah: not allowing my intake valve to close all the way resulting in a miss and a vacuum leak.
I also like the idea of trying the HEI as after I did my engine it wouldn't run right and found out the the ignition module was only supplying 7 volts to the coil :mad:. I got a JY HEI and rebuilt it and has been running well since.
Don't run your engine too much untill you get it running right as you end up dumping lots of extra fuel into the cylindes to get it to run and with the rings not seated yet that extra fuel will find its way down into your oil which if gets bad enough could wash the lubricant out of your bearings :eek1: :( .
I hope you find it soon and your engine runs to expectations :D
 
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the guy who built the engine didnt say anything about me haveing to adjust the rockers, and he put the intake on. he also did my buddys engine and it runs really good and he didnt have to do anything. when he rolled completely over an landed back on its wheels the engine stayed running the whole time.
 
Guys, I read this whole post and I kept thinking BASICS get back to basics, got to be a timing/firing order problem, I been doing it for a while and even I after all I've done and seen still little basic problems still get me now and then.

you have fire so no worries there, you have fuel no worries there. I'd bet firing order and timing, I once had the left side of a v8 wired incorrectly wires crossed it ran but no power and the cat got real hot, got home and rechecked everything found out after all my double checking that I still had wires crossed got the bbok out checked it against the book and low and behold numbers 101 Matty screwup! fixed the wires and the thingran like a raped ape after that.

Moral of the story; always, always check the basics it'll get ya every time1
 
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