summit racing and a few other places sell clear distributor caps which can be useful1965SS396 said:I've fiddling all week (learning as I go) with my rebuilt 396, mainly with the timing. I'm clearly a novice, but here's what I know:
I can set the timing to 12 or 20, and if I remove the vacuum advance hose there is no change in engine speed or via the timing light reading. Is that normal?
The higher I increase the timing (around 20 or so) it idles higher and runs better but it has a slight miss and is a little jerky when I accelerate. Lowering it down to about 16 or so it runs like crap.
I also have this lifter like tap that disappears when you give it gas, only heard at idle. It also changes with timing adjustments. I can adjust it out via the rocker nuts, but comes back as I play with the timing.
The coil on the hei has a date of 1985 . Is it time for a new one? Is this my problem?
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g5236
yeah I know most of the guys reading this will either skip over or ignore the links and sub links but if you really want to fix that distributor a couple hours reading will do an immense amount of good here , if you were local Id suggest driving over here.
like anything mechanical thats 30 plus years old, it most likely needs to be taken apart, carefully inspected, cleaned oiled, and have a few worn parts replaced to function correctly
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http://rmcavoy.freeshell.org/HEI.html
http://www.pontiacstreetperformance.com ... curve.html
http://www.corvette-restoration.com/res ... v_Spec.pdf
http://www.chevelles.com/techref/ftecref5.html
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