Oh man, distrubutor drive gear question

[68Valiant]

Ok i have the engine at TDC and everything good, how do i put the distributor drive gear in so the motor is timed right? it seems really hard because i don't know how the slot is supposed to be at and the fact you have to turn it to get it to seat right. PLEASE help me!! my motor is almost in and this is the only thing holding me back! It is a 1974 360 out of a challenger that i am transplanting into my 1969 dart.

[carguy]

You don't have to be overly concerned about were the distrubtor sits, as long as you line-up your number one spark plug wire with the front tip of the rotor. Make sure you are on the compresion stroke...

[waynebo]

put it anywhere you want it,i generaly line it with centerline of block,dont realy matter though.with it in,drop your dist. in with vacum canister pointing to the #2 or 4 cyl. now set your cap on their and note which one of the post on the cap it points to.starting their with #1 plug go in the direction of rotation on the manifold and the next one will be #8 plug wire then #4 then #3 then #6 then #5 then #7 then #2.done. now when trying to bust it off,have someone crank the engine over and you can rotate the distributor clockwise and counter clockwiseuntil it starts to hit.if it back fires alot .stop and pull the distributor and rotate the rotor button 180 degs. and put back in the hole and start engine. hope this helps waynebo

[dansdart]

do it correctly the first time. your camshaft will thank you later for not cranking so long to get it some oil.
Put the #1 up compression stroke, drop the dist. drive in to as the slot lines up with the front drivers side intake bolt hole on the head. As in it you drew a line thru the slot for the dist. to sit in forward it would go thru the front intake bolt hole. do it right and you won't have to second guess it later...

[68Valiant]

When i put the motor to TDC it hissed. is this the compression stroke?if not, how do i tell if it is the compression stroke?

[waynebo]

hows lining it up with a bolt hole right.i pretty sure what i said was right on,allways has been for me. waynebo

[waynebo]

I can remember back in 75, when i was just a teenager ,before i understood the engine i thought it had to be @ a certain place.but i learned that where the gear points means jack. point it where you wont. wire it from their. waynebo

[Billydelrio]

If the engine "hissed" out the number one hole, it is on the compression stroke. What I do to find the top of the compression stroke is to use a 1 1/4 inch socket on the crank bolt and turn as to tighten the bolt. As the crank turns, the piston will push air out of the "finger covered" number one hole. You should be able to tell a large difference between the small exhaust pressue and the large compression pressure escaping around your finger. I then put the timing mark to zero or a few degrees before zero. When your distributor is in, twist the housing so the rotor is in the center of the terminal that is to be #1. It will crank and start. I usually do a timing check with a light ASAP.

As you can tell from the other posts, there is more than one way to stab the distributor and line up the #1 terminal. It all depends on where you want your number one terminal to be.

Billy