Recent content by Traxfish

Well, I scavenged the vacuum canister from the new one and put on the old one back on, setting the point gap again first, and she's running about as good as I've ever seen her. Ignition timing stays pretty steady. I guess I can call the new distributor a dud. I started to run a compression test...

Today after work I'm planning to put the old distributor on and see what happens. I recall I only replaced it because the advance canister leaked and I couldn't source just the canister, and could only find a distributor from AutoZone in stock. Every test I ran on the new distributor has been...

Ok I won't say it but I couldn't find any other refurbished LA distributors in stock from Classic Industries or Year One. I still have the previous distributor that I can give another go.

Tested between the contact plate in the distributor and bare metal on the block and got 0.8 ohm.

It's a new distributor, and I haven't messed with any of the mechanical advance inside of it, but not impossible.

I have not. If I am understanding correctly, this is the distributor drive shaft bushing inside the block by the back of the cam, correct? I check the teeth for excessive wear by using a screwdriver to rotate that gear as described by another poster and found little rotational movement. The gear...

I did not. It's set per stock on the BBD, which is ported, and I disconnect and cap the vacuum advance when setting timing.

Stock 318

I do need to run the test again, and use the oil check to verify if it's the pistons rings. The heads were rebuilt in 2021 by a engine building shop including the valves and installing hardened seats so I am pretty confident they are good. I read that low compression numbers across the board...

I've had the thought of a bad ground but am unsure how exactly to check it. Could you go into more detail on how to check it? I am unsure of what should be grounding to what inside the distributor.

It had very little movement.

That's how I tested and diagnosed a stretched timing chain. It did not fix my timing issue though.

I've had for a while a problem with varying spark timing and it's been getting worse, varying about 3-4 deg each rotation. Now the engine runs pretty poorly at idle and does not get better with RPMs. I've put on a new distributor, cap and rotor included, and just checked point gap again...

The idle fuel mixture screws will shut the engine off if closed (screwed all the way in). When adjusting idle fuel mixture I'll set them at two and a half turns out and then close them until vacuum drops, then back them out a quarter turn. I do this after setting initial timing and having the...

I drive the car pretty frequently, about 1200 miles a year in warm weather. It will sit through winter though. This road trip was on gas filled up that morning. Yes, I've been setting the hot idle all the way down and setting timing by advancing to where engine has highest vacuum. I have been...