Re: timing on 54 Patty

Posted by Ross On 2015/3/16 7:30:31

Its nicer for you and for anyone else who works on the car if you can put the dizzy back to its factory position:

Go ahead and pull the distributor and do whatever service is necessary. Set the points.

With the dizzy out, turn the engine over with a wrench or bump it with the starter till a penny placed over the #1 sparkplug hole begins to float. You are now on the compression stroke. Bring the engine around to 0 degrees for a 359 engine.

Stick the dizzy in. In standard condition the rotor should point to 7 o'clock. If not remove the diz and the oil pump and fiddle with the pump so that when it is fully seated to the block, the dizzy rotor is at 7. During this procedure it doesn't make any difference where the rest of the dizzy is pointed.

Loosen the sideways clamp bolt on the diz retainer so it will spin in the clamp. Install the whole thing and bolt it down with the retainer roughly in the middle of its travel. Turn the diz so that the vac advance is pointing toward the front of the car and somewhat down. Pull up on the vac advance and turn the diz CW until you see the points only just starting to open. Vac advance should be nearly pointing straight ahead. Lock it down as your timing is now near perfect. The rotor is still at 7 o'clock, and that is number one. The wires go into the cap 16258374 CCW around the cap.