[DeTomaso] Help!

[Asa Jay Laughton]

Chris,

First off, don't panic.  You've positioned your timing in such a way 
that it's fighting the engine rotating.  Just take a deep breath and 
let's start over.

Don't pay -any- attention to any pre-existing marks on the distributor, 
on the housing, on the block or any other place at or near the 
distributor that you -think- may have been used to indicate number 1.

Now, find top dead center on number one cylinder.
Number one cylinder is the forward-most cylinder on the passenger side.  
You want the compression stroke, we've talked about that recently so you 
should know how to find it.  It should be marked relatively close on the 
crankshaft damper.  Remember the crank will point to TDC -twice-, only 
one of them is the compressions stroke.

Okay you got number one cylinder near the top of the bore on the 
compression stroke.  Next, let's look at your distributor.

Okay at this point people will argue over what's best, but here is the 
bottom line....
It -doesn't- matter exactly where the rotor is pointing.  What matters, 
is that the rotor is at a post in the distributor cap that has the 
number one cylinder plug wire attached.  That one has to fire when the 
piston is near the top of the compression stroke.

So, if the rotor is pointing to cylinder 8, I don't really care, as long 
as you can see exactly where the rotor tip is, -that- is where number 1 
is going to fire.  Got it?  Okay, good.

Now, placing the cap on the distributor, is the rotor positioned so that 
number one cylinder is at the tip of the rotor?  If yes, then proceed 
counterclockwise around the cap and verify the firing order, 
1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8.

Now that you have the firing order set properly and you know the rotor 
is at number one on the compression stroke, fire it up.  Then you'll 
have to fine tune the timing by gently turning the distributor one way, 
then the other to get the proper timing.

I hope this makes sense.  If not, please ask questions.

Asa Jay

Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
&  Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA
******************************
http://www.racingagainstautism.com
http://www.teampanteraracing.com


On 12/12/2010 13:27, Christopher Kimball wrote:
> Well, this is what I get for trying to work on a Pantera myself...
>
> The car timing, as you might recall, was strange, and there seemed to be a slight "missing" when it was running well (at 38 degrees instead of the recommended 16 degrees).  It was postulated that it might be the spark plugs, so I bought new ones (Taylor) and installed them.
>
> While I was at it, I noticed that with the damper at tdc, the rotor's contact was actually more between #1 and the next cylinder over, instead of pointing directly at #1.  The distributor had a small mark on it, indicating (I think) the correct position for the distributor to be when checking these things.
>
> Remembering that someone suggested the distributor might be out of place by one gear, I decided to move it over one position so that the contact would line up with the #1 cylinder (the base of the distributor was marked so with the cap off I know where the #1 position is when the distributor is rotated in the correct position).
>
> When I tried to start it, the car chugged in a very strange way, but wouldn't start.
>
> I assumed I had moved the distributor over too far, so I moved it again, and it seems to be dead on pointing at the #1 cylinder, but now the car won't start at all.  It just turns over and over.  I checked the MSD box, and I think the LED is supposed to flash when trying to start the car, but the LED did not come on at all.
>
> Did I destroy my MSD box, and if so, how?
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Chris
>   		 	   		
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