Hi there,

I'm planning to buy a new hei distributor with an 50.000 volts coil.

Where do I begin when replacing the old HEI?

Should I at first set the timing at the balancer, second the vacuum advance.......?????

I'm a dummy :?
So please someone give me a full discription how to handle, which values of timing, how do I get the 38 degrees (I read somewhere)or should it be more or less,how to set the vacuum advance,which springs to use.....

Tnx
Marcel
454 chevy el camino 1974

Pull off the old cap & disconnect the wires on the dist. Make a mark where the rotor is pointing to. Remove the hold down bracket .As you pull the dist up it will rotate some so make a mark where the rotor ends up. Now put the new dist. in useing the second mark to start. It should rotate on the first mark. Reassemble.

I would begin by bringing the engine to TDC on #1 cylinder. Rotate the engine until the pointer on the timing cover points to "0" (or TDC) on the damper. Pull the HEI distributor cap off and the rotor should be pointing forward just off center to the right side of the engine. If the rotor is pointing towards the firewall on the driver's side then you are 180 degrees off, rotate the engine until the rotor points in the correct direction and the timing pointer is again at "0". Now note and mark the position of the vacumn advance and the rotor, remove the distributor hold down, disconnect the wire(s) and vacumn hose to the distributor and pull the distributor straight up. As you pull the distributor out the rotor will rotate a few degress counterclockwise. Take the new distributor and orient the rotor and vacumn advance similarly to the position they were on the old distributor when you removed it. Put a new gasket on the distributor and slide it in. You will notice the rotor now turns clockwise, just make sure that the rotor and vacumn advance end up in the same position as before. You may have to make a few attempts turning the rotor slightly either clockwise or counterclockwise before it "falls" into place. Reconnect everything and check the timing with a timing lite. Two caveats--1. Do not crank the engine over until the new distributor is in place and 2. Do not force the distributor into place. Good luck.

Just my thoughts,when you install that new distributor,make sure that piston #1 is on its "compression" stroke, i think its better to remove the #1 plug,and feel with your finger for the air,then look on the balancer, when its at "0" you'r ready to install that new distributor. Mrapii is very correct in his tip,just my >02cents that has helped me in the past many times, Buy the way,iam running a msd HEI msd 6AL box with taylor 10.4 wires,accel "shorty" plugs. Never any probs..Good luck! :D

Hi Guys,

Well, he nwe Hei is in , just marked the vacuum advance unit and the rotor when it went out, put the nwe rotor on the same position and let the new one slide in, turned the base of the new to the mark and done!
BUT: I also want to replace the wires, but I'm not sure if the previous owner did the right job, since I get this feeling of powerloss.......
As I look into the HAYNES Manual the wires can be paces in to positions..
1. 1967-74: cilinder 1 on the left side front of the engine(driver)
2. 1975 and later: cylinder 1 on the driver side front of the engine.
Since mine is late 1974 with an Hei, I don't know which is the right setup.
Checked the timing with the old one, It was 'bout 8 to 10 degrees.
So does it matter where I put the first one (1 or 2) if the timing is right?????Which one does apply to my engine????????????

On all Chevy V8s the number one cylinder is on the drivers side closest to the front of the vehicle. If you replaced the distributor and the engine runs and starts fairly well you are pretty certain to have the distributor in the correct position. Just replace the sparkplug wires one at a time. Check the timing with the vacumn advance plugged and make sure that you get a total advance (initial plus mechanical) of about 36 degrees at 2400-2600 rpms. You may have to adjust the ignition curve but you should end up with about 12 degrees of initial timing and the remainder (24 degrees) in the advance. Re connect the vacumn advance and you should be good to go.

Hi

I know where cyl. nr1 is located, sorry I wasn't clear, I meant the position of the distributor cap .
So I need to know where to put the wire for the nr.1 cylinder, is it left or right front of the engine, if you own a chilton repair(28440) page2-13, or doesn't it matter, as long as the timing's right??

tnx

I am assuming that you already replaced the distributor and it is in the same position as the old distributor. I am also assuming that you did not remove the old distributor cap and the old wires. If so just replace each wire one at a time in the same position as before.

Yea, You can't go wrong if you replace the wires one at a time.

If you think that the wires are wrong then you can relocate #1 one position left or one position right. Here is the deal. If you check the timing with a light and you can't get the initial timing to, 12 degrees, then you have the wires off one position, if you replaced the dist the way you said. If it is too advanced and will not come down to 12 then you can go counter rotation one position with all wires. It has to be with all wires not just one (forward or back). HEI is weird that way. You can't do this with the point type dist. So you do have that leaway.

THat electronic module will compensate a certian number of degrees for timing errors that is probably why that manual said what it did about the wiring.

Just a thought.