Ok guys, here is my problem, I bought a new HEI and replacing my old, did I say old, reliable points dist. When I pulled the old dist. out I mark where the rotor was pointing and then I drop the new dist. in. Well when it drop in, it seem to be one tooth off and was pointing alittle past (a little) where it should be, well I tried for almost a hour trying to get that darn thing to line up excatly on the mark, well it never did...my question is, since it is a bigger dist. since it (the rotor) has more travel between the cap wire leads, does this keep it from lining up with my mark..... thanks guys

Cliff should point pretty much to the same spot I would think....Sometimes you need to take a long screw driver and turn the oil pump shaft back a wee bit to get them back in the same place. Good Luck

thanks for the response back so soon, yea I had the screwdriver on the pump shaft alot, turning and turning, back and forth, still can't get it right on the mark, close but not quite there, will have to keep trying I guess, thanks again

Perhaps the hole for the pin retaining the gear to the shaft is drilled in a slightly different orientation than the gear on the points dizzy.

Just a thought

Is the distributor dropping all the way down to the intake, aligned with oil pump? If so then you have to pick the closest spot. As said the point and HEI may not be exactly the same. You really need to rotate the engine to TDC compression stroke of #1 cylinder. Drop the distributor in so the rotor is pointing to where you want the #1 plug wire on the cap to be. Keep in mind you'll have to rotate the distributor, the outside housing and cap, 10* to 20* CCW from there to set your initial timing.

Is the distributor dropping all the way down to the intake, aligned with oil pump? If so then you have to pick the closest spot. As said the point and HEI may not be exactly the same. You really need to rotate the engine to TDC compression stroke of #1 cylinder. Drop the distributor in so the rotor is pointing to where you want the #1 plug wire on the cap to be. Keep in mind you'll have to rotate the distributor, the outside housing and cap, 10* to 20* CCW from there to set your initial timing.

Here is a tip to expand on Hank's post. When you get it in correctly rotate the balancer 10 degrees before top dead center using the timing mark and set the distributor on the TDC mark (rotor pointing to number 1. It's much easier and more accurate to set 10 degrees with the timing mark doen below than it is to guess 10 degrees advance on the distributor. Then when it is running OK, set the timing.

Chuck

When setting the new distributor, as long as you are close to the position that the old one was at, you should be able to make up the difference by turning the distributor just like you do when setting the timing. If the distributer doesn't set in all the way, but you are happy with the position of the rotor, just hold the distributor down while you bump the engine over with the starter. The distributor will fall into place as the engine is turning. If you find that you can't get the distributor turned enough to set the timing, then pull it out and move it a tooth. Don't forget, the hei takes a direct 12 volt connection from the ignition switch while the points distributor was fed through a resistor wire.

Thanks guys, will let you know how things come out sunday, or maybe IT will come out....can't believe having this much trouble with this, thanks again

Here is a tip to expand on Hank's post. When you get it in correctly rotate the balancer 10 degrees before top dead center using the timing mark and set the distributor on the TDC mark (rotor pointing to number 1. It's much easier and more accurate to set 10 degrees with the timing mark doen below than it is to guess 10 degrees advance on the distributor. Then when it is running OK, set the timing.

Chuck

Doh! Good idea Chuck, I just guestimate. Hey, but I hit *8 BTC the last time.