Coffee, 10-8-11

Yeah that's a possibility too. I got the entire distributor for under $70 off eBay. I heard from somebody that it's a Mallory, only without the name & high price tag - but who knows.

I have no idea even what my base timing is, as you can barely see the timing mark ( and there's no degree tab, as this engine wasn't designed for manual ignition, so I'd just be guessing anyway ) - don't think I could even get a light on there, so I'm just setting it by ear & seat-of-the-pants. Not the best way, but we'll see how it runs once I get that vacuum assembly off of there.

Funny story Dan! I had one very similar when I was down in Mass years ago. I was in beautiful Holyoke and long story short, the car got towed and I was riding with the driver. Problem was I was living in Maine but still had my old Mass licence. Long story short, as we are driving along I spy a farm stead with a long driveway and say "here we are". The tow driver stops and backs up, dumps my car off the back of the flatbed. I think him and he starts to go back to his truck. A guy is now walking down the driveway wondering what the heck is going on? I yell sorry Pops, they pinched me. He looks at me like I'm nuts but says nothing. The driver takes off and so did I. ha,ha,ha.....oh the bad old days!

Smitty, Rob, are those distributors geared? Tougher to line em by eye if so. My old plow truck could only go in the right way, or 180 degrees off. Was a bit easier.

My Brother in law's got that same RD350 motor in a quad Smitty. Yamaha Banshee. Lot of fun and loads of nuts when it gets up on the pipe. I still got an old Yamaha FJ1100 in the barn too. First year they ever made em 1984. I've made allot of upgrades on that ols gal too. R1 monoblock calipers, bigger wheels, suspension, corbin seat, etc.. The best of both worlds. Easy maint of the aircooled inline 4 and modern running gear to stop and handle.

Ooh FJ1100! I always wanted one of those back in the day! Bigtime torque! Yep - my RD engine was the father of the Banshee engine. The Banshee engine is basically an RZ350 with different gearing & ignition curves. Lots o' fun!

MarkVIII, this engine has 2 TDC marks on the flywheel - one lines up with a notch on the plastic timing cover, and the other to a boss on the block. That just tells you your at TDC. I made a #1 mark on the distributor before I set it in place, so I know it's close - just a bit too far advanced. The knock is more sensitive to throttle position than RPM, so I think I just need to dial it back a bit. We'll see later today after I remove that vac. advance unit. The 2 timing lights I have are just plain-jane basic. One is a 30+ year old metal Sears one, the other a plastic one I bought at Checker Auto Parts in Phoenix because I had forgotten the Sears one at home. My ear is pretty good. I know I'm close ....

Just a note on distributors -- as long as you have your wires in the correct firing order, you can clock the distributor any way you want. I tried telling my buddy's ol' man this years back when he bought a '69 Chevelle SS that I got running for them. He just couldn't understand the concept, & was telling me I'd burn his valves up. Maybe I didn't explain it correctly. The engine doesn't care what direction the distributor is facing - it just cares that the sparks come at the right time. With that in mind, I could spin the distributor 180° to keep the advance unit from hitting anything, but it's just easier to remove it - I already have everything set to this position, so I'm gonna run it.

Just looked at my old receipt on eBay - $59.95. What a bargain! I think .... Running Amsoil Signature Series oil in it, so not too worried about wear. I'll play with it today while I wait for my lawn to dry out.

Success!

Was a royal pain in the ass, but it's running great now. I had to re-clock the distributor ... so basically started over from scratch. At least this time finding TDCC was a breeze - just follow the pointer. All the wires came off, cap/rotor off, then the unit came out so I could spin the oil pump to the new position, then re-installed about 4 teeth farther down the line, re-installed cap/rotor, then put the wires back on their new positions after wiping my permanent marker numbers off & re-labeling everything. Works great!

This came about because I found that the vacuum advance assembly holds the stator in place - if I had removed it, the stator would wander around aimlessly from vibration & magnetism, & cause wild 20°+ variations in timing at idle ... and double that on the advance curve!! No go there!

I think I'll play around with the vacuum advance once my air cleaner spacers come in. I hate driving it with no air cleaner - that's just asking for trouble.

Now that's what I'm talkin about.

SMITTY wrote:............ I hate driving it with no air cleaner - that's just asking for trouble.

Yeah but back in the day it was nice hearing that Rochester quadrajet opening up full bore.

Of course back then gas was only .50/gallon

Congrads on the Frankenstein vehicle Smitty !!!!!!!

Rick