QUESTION:
I have a 1974 2002tii- When I bought the car, someone had a dist from 76 auto in it. so bought a used 008 and a 013, the 008 got it timed and does good, then tried the 013. Cannot get the 1,2,3 of getting it started/timed. The points are backwards, but not sure where the notch on the dist needs to face or the rotor and plug wires. Looked through Chiltons manual, but something is not right. If I put the notch and rotor facing #1 plug, then the vacum is almost over the valve cover. Any help or pics would be appreciated.
ANSWER:
The 008 distributor you found works well, just plug the vacuum line on your air box that used to feed the vacuum retard of what the 013 distributor used originally on the 74tii only. The 72 and 73 model Tii’s did not have that ability – and only the USA cars had the vacuum retard in 1974.
Finding TDC
The secret to getting top dead center is as follows.
- Place the car on a flat location to work on it, and have it totally cool.
- Remove the valve cover
- Look for the location of the top dead center mark on the cam shaft where it meets the timing chain sprocket. The photo is located here on what that looks like.
TDC MARK - Assuming you can’t see top dead center on the cam yet, and with the ignition turned off, grab hold of the fan and turn it while placing pressure on the belt and turn the engine over by hand until you can line it up as shown in the photo above.
- Once the engine is at top dead center, the next is getting the firing order lined up on the distributor. From a spark plug wiring setup, this is how I did it:
Spark Plug Wiring - The Firing Order - Move the distributor so that the notch indicating TDC (a groove on top of the distributor housing edge) line up with where the plug wire for cylinder #1 align.
- Next rotate the distributor shaft to where the rotor points directly at the notch.
- Back the distributor off approximately one quarter turn counter clock wise and then insert it into the distributor hole on the head, wiggling it left or right so the distributor syncs up with the cam gear itself so that when the distributor is fully pushed down into the head, the rotor points directly at the #1 plug and TDC notch at the same time.
- Snug up the 10mm nut that holds the distributor in place.
- Put the distributor cap back on and reinstall the valve cover.
- Attempt to start the engine as you would normally. It should start up and be ready to time properly once the engine is warm.
Last update: 2008-02-22 14:18
Author: Keith Kreeger