Distributor 180 out

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unknownmale
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Distributor 180 out

Post by unknownmale »

Been playing with my timing this morning and found the car actually runs a little better with dizzy 180 degrees out.

Meaning with number one at TDC the rotor is pointing more at the 7 o'clock position.

Still need to playing with the mixture and idle screws but at the correct position in getting a very lumpy idle.

Unfortunately I don't have a timing light to verify everything so I'm doing it by ear. Just wondered if anyone had come across this?


- David
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bengould
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Re: Distributor 180 out

Post by bengould »

It is possible. Depending in how your engine has been set up.

Not trying to teach you something you already know but the process I usually follow is...


Set cylinder 1 to tdc via the crank/flywheel mark.
Then make sure the cam mark also lines up.
If it doesn't, do another full rotation of the crank, then check it again.
Once they are both lined up the distributer arm should point to the timing mark on its case.
If it points to the opposite side to the mark then your distributer is in wrong/intermediate shaft is not aligned correctly.

You can get it to run right at this point by just re arranging the leads.

I would take the cam belt off, remove the distributor, reset the timing of everything from scratch using all the correct marks and then re fit the distributor in the correct position.

Then adjust the advance to get the optimum running.


You don't need a timing light to do any of this, but it does make life a bit easier.

Ben.


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unknownmale
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Re: Distributor 180 out

Post by unknownmale »

Cheers, Yeah I set everything up correctly this morning, just a bit lumpy, but much smoother when I tried it 180 out.

Will have a play around with the carb tomorrow as it might be a little lean at the moment


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Re: Distributor 180 out

Post by Nate »

Did the belt on a J reg passat a long time ago, and found that someone had previously got the intermediate out and just rotated the dizzy to compensate for it. When we put the belt on with everything lined up as it should be, it did start, but lumpy would be an understatement! Sounded throaty as hell though


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ghost123uk
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Re: Distributor 180 out

Post by ghost123uk »

unknownmale wrote:much smoother when I tried it 180 out.
As long as the timing is set correctly, it shouldn't make any difference at all being 180 out. The sparks will still be arriving at all the plugs at the right time if you think about it.


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Re: Distributor 180 out

Post by Nate »

Crank dies 2 rotations to one rotation of the dizzy and the cam. So if the dizzy is 180 deg out it will be trying to fire on the exhaust stroke


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Re: Distributor 180 out

Post by Nate »

Crank dies 2 rotations to one rotation of the dizzy and the cam. So if the dizzy is 180 deg out it will be trying to fire on the exhaust stroke. It's not like a modern coil pack system with wasted sparks.


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