Title says it. My brother's Nova has an HEI dist that advances backwards. If i turn the distributor clockwise, the engine speeds up. On my Chevelle and every other Chevy I've dealt with, the engine would slow down if the dist was turned clockwise.

Also, if the engine is idling at 1000RPM with vac advance hooked up it reads 16 degrees of advance. Not unusual right? well, if i unhook the vac advance it idles at 850RPM and reads in excess of 50 degrees of advance?????

What's up with this thing?

Distributor come out of a reverse rotation engine?

Were there any common applications in which the chevy-type distributor housing/gear work on a reverse rotating engine with a regular-type cam gear?

You've been smokin what!!! :D

A simple physical inspection should suffice. Remove the distributor cap and determine which way the advance mechanism moves the plate and rotor.

What are you using to determine the timing?
Have you tried applying vacuum gradually to the mechanism with a pump?

Appearently, it was over-advanced or over-retarded or something.

The rotor was passed the #1 terminal when the balancer was reading TDC.

Simply pulling out the distributor and turning the oil pump shaft CCW a few degrees and dropping the dist back int fixed it. The motor seems fine now.

Make sure the roll pin is not starting to sheer.
the gear might be turning on the shaft.

possibly a marine application dist.

or you could have just moved the plug wires around the cap one terminal...clockwise smile.gif