You're gonna have to pull the dist. It has a plastic gear on the bottom of it with a little pin thru it, replace that gear. I'm sure some of these guys can tell you where the quality ones are at. Be sure to bring engine to TDC on compression stroke before pulling dist. Mark where # 1 wire goes from cap to dist body to make reinstall a little easier, thats where rotor button should point when you drop it in. Good luck.

I second that diagnosis.

sweet. that is what i needed to hear. i will try to get one dropped in pretty soon and post on here if that helped. so, where should i get one from or i guess i should say what's the best manufacturer?

Dorman has them on a red card at most auto parts stores and you can find them on eBay.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

wow i only gap @ 0.37 and i'm msi coiled and dizzyed, w/ ngk plugs and a mildly agressive built sl6. i am running the borg warner cap and rotor tho.
would a better cap and rotor give me more room to gap higher?

my timing is about 8deg advanced at this time.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

Don't know. I have run my plugs gapped at .045 for years with cheap caps, expensive caps, stock coils high perfromance coils, etc... Never had any problems with it.

Same here, .045 gap with NGK UR4 plugs the old orange box, older Chrome MSD Blaster 2 coil and their .85 ohm resistor.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

cool i'm doing plugs today so i'll gap @ 0.45 and see how she does.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

ok gaped @ 0.45 and she purrs. i almost got my dart sideways when i stomped the gas to pull out into traffic. sweet!

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

Mine does that allot even with a posi. It's nice to have a spunky car. I am glad you gave it try.

_________________
Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

i've got a cobra mustang if i wanna get sideways in traffic i just want the freakin valiant to run. i appreciate all the help from you guys.

ok guys. the dist gear is good. i pulled the dist today and checked it out. it was cold as crap and spitting snow so i didn't work too long on it. i did set the engine to tdc on #1 and the dist and tried to fire her up. i got a lot of backfiring through the carb. it actually blew a plugged vacuum line off the carb at one point. so i pulled the dist and retarded the gear one tooth since i figured i was getting fire too early. didn't really change so i did it again and then back to where i started and advance a tooth. still nothing but backfires so i thought maybe i have it 180 out. set it to tdc and the rotor wasn't pointing to #1 so i made it so that it was. then when i cranked on it the engine seemed to hang up or something. it didn't backfire or anything but the starter sounded really weird. it was almost like it had too much compression and the starter would crap out for a second and then start back. so i put it back 180 and more backfiring through the carb. at this point i couldn't feel certain parts of my body so i came inside. any ideas? by the way, i am sure the valve lash needs to be set. could that cause the car to not run at all? also, for such a low compression engine i had the hardest time turning it over by hand. should it be hard to turn? i just took the belt off and grabbed the harmonic balancer with my hands and turned it. i even had to take the plugs out. i am not the strongest man in the world but i am certainly no wimp either. should there be a bolt or something in the middle of the balancer to aid in my engine turning? another thing i noticed was a lot of blow by? or puffs of smoke coming from the valve cover where i have removed the breather cover and the pcv valve? is that normal. it looks like a freakin freight train when i am crankin on it.

Some slants came with a bolt on the crank, most didn't. You can use the bolt from any Mopar smallblock v-8 though. The fact that it is hard to turn over may be a good thing (good compression) or it may be bad (binding bearing, internal damage, who knows?) Most people use the fan to turn the motor over because the fan blaes make it easier to rotate the motor.

It sounds like you have a timing problem. When you had the timing at the point where it wasn't backfiring through the carb but the starter sounded really weird, I suspect that you had the timing fairly close to correct but too advanced. I suggest flipping the rotor 180 degrees, then turning the distributor about 1/6 of a turn clockwise and trying again.

If the base timing is too far advanced, the engine will fire too early and it will act like the compression is too high.

If you want to be absolutely sure you are timing the motor correctly:
(1) pull the valve covoer
(2) rotate the motor by hand while watching the valves on the #1 cylinder
(3) keep rotating the motor until you see the #1 exhaust valve open and close and then see the #1 intake valve open and close
(4) after the #1 intake valve closes, keep rotating the crank until the timing mark is at zero
(5) pop the distributor cap and see where the rotor is pointing. It should be pointing at the #1 spark tower. If it doesn't, make it. Put the cap back on.
(6) verify that the plug wires are in the right order- 1-5-3-6-2-4
(7) try starting it. If possible, have a friend turn the key or use a remote starting switch. This way you can slowly turn the distributor as the motor cranks. Start by slowly turning the distributor counter-clockwise while the engine is tuerned over. If it starts turning slowly and sounding weird, back off by turning the distributor clockwise. THe motor should start up, but be careful not to flood it.

You are almost there! Keep trying.

just a thought - perhaps the balancer has turned on the rubber bush and what you think is TDC is not really. old balancers tend to do things like that.
with the coil lead disconnected - most important - find your TDC. then remove #1 plug and insert a stiff piece of thin wooden dowel or a piece of stiff wire into the plug hole,and touch the piston top. then - turn the engine in its usual rotation direction a little (and I mean little) like about half an inch on the balancer. see if the probe you have in there moves up or down. if it moves UP - it means you are still before TDC although the mark on the balancer reads TDC. if it moves down,it can mean two things -the TDC is correct or it is after TDC.
to do this it might pay to take all the plugs out to facilitate easy truning of the engine.having somebody help you would be handy also,as you can see (and feel) for tiny movement on the probe you have stuck in your engine.
that is a bit long winded,but you can find true TDC that way.

regards,Rod
[/i]

To set the valve lash you will need to pull the valve cover and plugs(so that turning the engine is easier) and make sure you're at TDC on 1 piston on compression stroke. Use your feeler gauges ad set intake to.010 and exhaust to .020.
The adjusters will feel a little tight but they shouldn't take much to move. When you are done relashing all the valves, crank engine over with valve cover off and watch for that smoke. If you don't have a compression tester you can plug the spark holes and watch for the rag to be popped out. I don't think these are interference engines so you shouldnt have a bent valve, but if the lash was too tight it would burn it.