so i've had the new (used ) engine running, and driving...although its missing a little, but sill runs pretty good

i was looking at some engine pics, and noticed that my distributor was put on backwards, meaning that the firing would be all wrong. now i was wondering exactly the correct way it should look

basically the way i noticed it was off is because the side where the wires come off the coils, the wires go to the outside of the dizzy....rather than the center. the side i had them on was the side closest to the left fender (hope that makes sense).....can anyone tell me or show me with a diagram exactly how it should look? and would a car even run with it backwards? seems kinda crazy to me

nick

 

I have no bloody idea what you're talking about.

 

the dizzy can be put on 2 different ways, it can be rotated 180 degrees.....so if i hook up the wires as labelled on the dizzy to T1, L1, T2, L2 as written on the dizzy, and it is on backwards (rotated 180degrees) then everything would be off. sparks would be going to the wrong places.....now do you understand?

 

If you think you have the dizzy 180* out, line up the timing mark for the leading on the pulley, pull the dizzy and reinstall it. Simple. If the the pully was installed wrong, you will be where you started. If that is the case, take the pulley off and turn it 180*, turn the engine to the leading timing mark and reinstall the dizzy.

 

Now that I reread your last post, you are talknig about the cap. The cap is indexed so it should only go on one way, make sure you have the cap seated correctly.

 

If you put the distributor on 180 degrees out, the firing order on the cap will be correct. The distributor only turns 1/2 revolution per engine revolution. (That's why the rotor has doubled up leads)

I had to mount the distributor on one of my engines backwards in order for the vacuum cans to clear the throttle cable bracket I made. Was a piece of cake, just unbolted the lockdown place, rotated it, bolted it back on and re-installed.



Note the vacuum cans pointing forwards...

 

i don't think you guys are getting what i am saying

first of all i have no marks on my pulley becfause of corrosion, and i had to install the dizzy finding tdc by looking at the flywheel, and comparing to a different engine

the cap can go on backwards. i figured that out when i saw pics of other caps, with the spark plug wires going (for example) from the left side of the cap to the front rotor, rather than the other way around (can't remember which is which)....

basically all i need is for someone to show me a pic of their correctly installed distributor cap, and where the wires are going. see....if it was backwards, and i was putting the wires on the cap where it says to put them, then they owuld have been backwards because the cap was backwards....

i hope you understand now

 

Only, if you did have the cap on 180 degrees out, it wouldn't be a problem. As mentioned, the distributor turns only 1/2 turn for every turn of the engine.

The "correct" way, for what it is worth, has the trailing coil wire closer to the front of the car than the leading coil wire (which is centered). This is why the trailing coil is closer to the front of the car than the leading coil, they made the coil wires the same length.

You do need to make sure the distributor is not 90 degrees out. If that occurs, the sparks will be occuring 180 degrees out of phase, so the leading will be firing very very late and the trailing will be firing very very early...

- Pete (BT, DT, GTTS)

 

The distributor CAP should only go on the dizzy one way. Like trochoid said it's indexed.