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I ground all of the valves and put a new head gasket in place. The 6 cylinder runs smoothly BUT when I assembled the distb connecting rod it is now opposite of what it used to be.

In other words, when the knob and rod are pushed all the way in to the dashboard, the timing/distributor is RETARDED (fully rotated counter-clockwise). This is opposite of what the manual indicates and they way it used to be.

What do I need to change to get the advance/retard correct?

Thanks,
Gar

Hi Gar,

I am not where I can directly observe my car - but, from memory, the hookup should be roughly as follows: A shaft goes from the left side of the distributor to the firewall. On the firewall there is a cross shaft with two levers. The shaft from the distributor attaches to one lever. A shaft from the spark advance knob goes to the other lever. I don’t remember if the cross shaft mounts on the engine side of the firewall or on the cab side.

Make sure the shaft to the distributor mounts on the LEFT (driver’s) side of the distributor.
Make sure that the levers on the cross shaft are both pointing in the same direction (see "A"). In that configuration, when the spark knob is pulled out, the distributor is rotated counterclockwise.

Phil

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Hi Gar,

Did you sort out your problem? If so, what was the solution?

Phil:

No joy. Here are some addl pics of my issue.

It is 180 degrees out of sync.

Gar

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I imagine you have solved the problem by now. In the unlikely event that you haven’t, here are some comments that may help.

The linkage as shown in your photo is set up correctly. The problem therefore lies in the connections not shown in your photo.

On my car, the shaft shown in your second picture is attached at the other end to a lever mounted on a short rod mounted on the firewall. Another lever attached to that same small rod has a shaft that goes to the spark knob.

Those two levers have to point in the same direction; both up or both down. If one is up and one is down, your distributor will have counter-clockwise rotation when the spark knob is pushed in.

I wish I were near my car so I could take and post pictures. If you aven’t solved the problem, can you post a picture of the linkage at the firewall?

(Bye the way, your wiring looks very nice.)