SSO after viewing the diagram that Matv91 posted, I see two 2 prong plugs attached to the distributor.

Mine has only one. Which leads me to believe that something was done to the internal wiring of the distributor.....

I better start digging that piece out of the garage.

After carefully considering the concept of having way too much inventory, and sifting through my garage...

No. I don't have too much stuff, and yes I found the previously mentioned distributor.

The pick-ups are nearly 180 degrees apart (but not exactly as Dan had mentioned), and they have been wired in series.

If we consider the (one remaining) two pronged connecter coming from the HEI module, using orange as the color of choice (and direction of current flow), we flow into the pick-up nearer the vacuum advance, and out the black wire across to the white wire of the (nearly) opposite pick-up, and then out black and up the wire back toward the HEI.

Does it lengthen the moment of firing?
Does it blur the actual timing?
Does it benefit in any way?

Thanks to all who participate in this thread.

Neil

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The 81 fsm does say not much.When looking close the pick-ups are off set slightly. The run pick-up is on the vacuum advance plate,normal position. The start pick-up is on a fixed plate,does not move. Sounds like there using the the start pick-up for timing retard at start and after start return to normal timing.Just a guess.

No.
Probably.
No.

All it does is reflect Jerry's misunderstanding of how the system works. :-\ He evidently thought wiring the pickups in series was like wiring points in series in a dual-points distributor.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

So start pickup is slightly retarded vs. run pickup...opposite of what I said. That makes sense, now I think about it, given the 12° to 16° BTDC base timing settings called for in the late '70s/early '80s cars...probably heading into kickback territory during cranking under certain conditions, so spark retard during cranking makes sense.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.