Josh,
You may have missed my saga about troubles starting my engine which I posted
on this list a few months ago.
Anyway, I finally got it sorted out and in the process discovered some
interesting details.
The bottom line is that I had unintentionally moved all of the spark plug
wires one hole forward in the distributor cap, but even at that the engine
would almost run! When I finally realized what was wrong and got it started it
ran -at least at idle and fast idle- quite smoothly although when I checked
it with a strobe light, the timing was still about 20 degrees off.
So my advice is to trust your timing light (or use the static timing method
I mentioned the other day), set the micrometer at mid-scale and then loosen
the distributor clamp and rotate the distributor body to get the timing mark
at the right place. Lock the distributor down and make final adjustments with
the micrometer.
BTW, if you want to check that the #1 (or any other cylinder) is on the
right (compression) stroke, get a piece of half-inch heater hose or the like
about three feet long, remove the spark plugs, place one end of the hose over the
plug hole and blow in the other end. With the valves closed on the
compression stroke you won’t be able to move any air, but if it’s on the exhaust
stroke the exhaust valve will be open and you’ll feel no resistance. It’s a
whole lot easier and cleaner than pulling the cam covers.
Bruce Wright
#674699