Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

See 55/56 service manual. Engine section pages 14, and ESPECIALY 26 and 28.

Look at the pics and descriptions in the MANUAL and then look at pics of MY car posted below. Manual seems to indicate timing at #1. Unless i read the manual wrong the pics of the gears and timing marks CLOSEST together (p26-28) is in reallity for #6, NOT #1.

I drove the car in, jacked it up and took the cover off. With timing marks CLOSEST together it fires 6. NOT 1. THerefor the manual is in error. A trivial error i suppose but nonetheless wrong.

EDIT: In pic0007 thegreen tube to left of dist is the road draft tube. So my dist is installed as per SM. Last pic is from LEFT side of car showing rotor button pointing at #6. That should be as per factory spec too relative to distributor configuration.

My pics match pics in SM. But it fires SIX, not one.

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Since there is no index wouldn't the cylinder number be controlled by how the distributor was oriented when installed -- ie if the rotor was 180 out? Looks to me like yours is oriented 180 out to what figure 24 in electrical section shows if #1 is at TDC and enough crank revs have brought marks into line.

My dist matches the figure 24 of electrical section. Look at pic0007 and pic0008 above. Directly to left of distributor in pic0007 is road draft tube. Have to look close at rotor to see it is pointing as per SM. Pic 0008 is taken while i was standing over LEFT drivers side fender.

Pic0007 fixed with labels.

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I must be confused then. On yours it looks like the rotor contact arm is pointing to the drivers side away from draft tube and is under the linkage. In the figure, it looks like it is pointing toward the draft tube and passenger side.

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I got into this problem some 10 to 12 years ago. Set it up like SM and had to move plug wire locations on dist cap 180 degrees o get it to run. I double checked it this time before removing anything. What the SM says is typical of SBC and therefore i took it as bible when i saw it in the Packard SM 10-12 years ago. But it turns out it fires 6, not 1.

Not sure what to say. Just checked mine and it may be one tooth off but #1 plug wire is generally in the right rear corner of cap or about 11:00 assuming the firewall is 12:00 -- pretty close to where the manual says it should be.

Pic of fig #24 in post #4 above:

Yes, that is rotor pointing to #1 on cap and on my cap too. BUT if the timing gears are set up as pictureed in engine section AND distributor set up as fig 24 it won;t fire. It is 180 out in the case of gears pictured in manaul and distributor pictured in manaual.

"Not sure what to say. Just checked mine and it may be one tooth off but #1 plug wire is generally in the right rear corner of cap or about 11:00 assuming the firewall is 12:00 -- pretty close to where the manual says it should be."

Yes, and mine is too. But can u see your TIMING gears when rotor is pointed at #1 ????

Let me put it this way:
Your distributor (installment) matches mine and the book figure 24. BUT if we BOTH pointed our rotors at #1 then our TIMING gears would not match the book as pictureed in engine section.

I drove this car into the shop. Drove it over 24K miles. Only reason i tor it down is due to loose timing chain.

Again, not sure what to say. My engines were set up per manual as far as I know -- by different mechanics - this car and a 56 Patrician I had earlier -- and they didn't report any problems. The second mechanic used factory piston clearances on this car which caused a problem with Egge pistons but didn't have any issues with the timing.