Distributor turned round 180 degrees?

I did that once. It will work okay, but timing is normally retarded a bit to keep #3 cylinder cool (at least on a '70), so I fixed it back the right way the next time I had a chance. I don't know if the timing is retarded on models that came with a doghouse oil cooler.

Cecil

Cecil

Well, you have to pull out the drive gear and that can be tricky, especially since you don't want to drop the washer down into the engine case. If it's okay otherwise, you might want to just leave it as is.

Hmmm...that's a T1 not a T3, right?

It has been discussed here not long ago, and one important thing often overlooked is that the distributor needs OIL too, and the oiling hole on the distributor body only lines up with the respective oil hole in the case when it is installed right. If it's 180 degrees off, it gets no or very little lubrication. I don't know how severe this problem is though.

Jan

Except for the possible oiling problem, the orientation doesn't matter on '71. #3 is not retarded on later engines with doghouse cooler.

Speedy Jim

Are you sure there really is a problem? Sorry if it sounds like I'm doubting you, but most of us have mistakenly wired the spark plugs for our cars. It is a common mistake. The wire located at the the 4 o'clock distributor position (right rear most distributor wire) should be connected to the right front cylinder (front, as in front of car). This is cylinder #1. The wire at the 10 o'clock position (left front most distributor wire) should be connected to the left front cylinder. This is cylinder #3. If you were to get these confused for each other you might try to set your timing using #3 cylinder. On later cars you could do this w/o a problem.

There are two times during the four-stroke cycle that the #1 cylinder will be at TDC: Top (end) of the compression stroke and top of exhaust stroke. At the top of the exhaust stroke for #1 the rotor will be pointing at cylinder #3's post since cylinder #3 will be at the top of it's compression stroke. This is because the cam shaft and distributor rotate at 1/2 the speed of the crankshaft (two rotations of the crank for each rotation of the cam/dizzy).

The only way to know that you are at the top of the compression stroke for cylinder #1 is to follow Speedy Jim's instructions (sorry Speedy Jim, I'm referencing your site here... but it is such a good site :-)

AshMan40

Thanks, Haven't had a chance to get into it this weekend, but I am pretty sure its on backwards. I have just changed the generator for an alternator and need to make a spacer for the carb before I go too much further (literally) then I'll flick over the distributor and re time. Thanks for your replies