New timing chain, can't get distributor to line up

-

alfredo

Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2017
Messages
7
Reaction score
14
Location
Los Angeles
I'm installing a new timing set after my old one jumped teeth.

When I install the new gears with the dots at 6' o'clock and 12 o'clock, the distributor is pointing directly at the front of the motor. If I understand it correctly, it should be pointing directly at the #6.

I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas whats wrong or am I overthinking this?

Screen Shot 2019-03-02 at 10.49.57 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-03-02 at 10.50.10 PM.png
 
The distributor can point anywhere you want it to. You just have to move the wires around so they fire correctly.
 
You must clock the oil pump drive shaft correctly so that the distributer will drop in in it's proper position. Changing distributer wires to achieve this just confuses the next guy who works on it.
 
Leave the engine timed as it is with the cam and crank gears. Remove the distributor. Remove the intermediate shaft and reposition it so the the slot points towards the very front driver's side intake manifold bolt. This is the way the factory service manual says to time the intermediate shaft. Place the distributor back in pointing the rotor back to where number 6 is on the cap, according to the factory service manual. Replace the cap and put the wires on in order.
 
with dots at 12 n 6, you are number 6 tdc, 12 and 12 will give you tdc # 1. just pull dist , and rotate it, back in. it'll be on # 1, then. it's not rocket science.
 
Did you make sure that you are on the #1 compression stroke with the crank? If not you will bend valves!!! I made this mistake the first time I swapped a cam when I was 16. I will never make that mistake again. You can have the dot on the crank at 12 o'clock and be 180 degrees out.
 
I always place dots 12 and 12 for TDC because thereafter I normally degree the cam.
 
Lots of good advice. Dot 12 and dot 6 means your on #6 cylinder firing. If dots 12 and 12 then it's on #1 firing. Distributor doesnt need to point to front of engine, BUT it's a huge help with running wires and adjusting distributor timing. Verify Tdc with a piston stop or long straw in cylinder. Also verify balancer hasn't spun.
 
Yeah you are overthinking it, but before you put the cover on, you might want to actually put the chain on first , lol.

Seriously, the included pic shows your intermediate shaft is over-rotated is all, as is your Vcan
If the rocker gear is installed, do NOT rotate the cam more than a few degrees and if you encounter resistance STOP! and back up.
Rotate the I-shaft about a third of a turn clockwise, being sure to re-engage the pump, so the shaft drops all the way down again; then re-orient the cam sprocket back to where you have it in the pic. This should get your Rotor close to pointing to the frontmost driverside intake bolt; don't fret if the I-shaft slot is pointing somewhere else cuz it is the rotor's final resting place that counts.
From here Rusty and others have you covered in post #5 with the 180* deal.
The only reason I used the 1/3 of a turn, instead of slot orientation, is because some aftermarket D's have the distributor drive indexed to some other place than Mopar does, and so the slot to #1 doesn't work on those, whereas the rotor to #1 does.
 
Last edited:
..............and...........after........you.........are.........all........done with all of the above, it turns out that some distributors have the drive tang misplaced from the rotor index by some amount, compared to other distributors. This means that "by the book" it will not "point" as advertised. So the answer is to rotate the plug wires until they are indexed to rotor
....in other words, with engine assembled......remove no 1 plug, bump engine until you feel compression. Watch marks and bring them up to where you want the timing, AKA 10BTC etc. Then drop the distro in with the rotor pointing as close to the no1 tower as you can get. You can either use another tower, if not, or rotate the distributor gear as Rusty described above

Then plug in the no1 wire whever the rotor points, rotate the dist. body a few degrees to get the points open or reluctor / pickup aligned, and you are ready

You can also check timing with a light "on the starter"
 
-
Back
Top