4150 Transition Puzzle

[BigBlocksOnTop2]

I drill a hole right next to a terminal on the top of the distributor cap (in between the center terminal and a cylinder terminal. Fire the motor and shine your timing light in the hole. You can see the relationship between the rotor and the terminal....hopefully they are in alignment. If not you maybe able to move the mag pick up. I had to move mine alot. The lock dist. wont help with the antics....

[MadBill]

On a quick read of the thread I didn't see any reference to vacuum advance. I've cured or greatly reduced trailer-hitching with a combination of moderately lean AFR (~14.0:1) in the critical region and a tuned -by-seat of pants adjustable vac. can. One of the worst cases I tackled had previously been exacerbated by the owner dialing in richer and more retarded.

[63qcar]

Madbill .... correct on the distributor . Current one is an MSD mechanical advance unit since the car spent time on road courses . That`s behind me for the foreseeable future . I know people dump on the MSD unit , but I`ve gotten almost 10 years and 11,000 miles on it with one cap replacement .
You`re one step ahead of me ..... or I`m one step behind you . I have a recurved vacuum advance Duraspark unit sitting on the workbench that I hope to get installed this weekend.

Also , FWIW , got to play some yesterday and started dropping IFR`s and MJ on primary side ...... leaner I went on IFR`s more driveability suffered and same on the MJ. I went from a 76 to a 73 MJ and had all sorts of problems . Went to a 78 ( 76 came in carb ) and 90% of the issues went away and plugs are starting to clean up .

Also put a Wagner adjustable PCV valve on the car and will play some with that this weekend .

Maybe the Duraspark will then clear up the rest of it .

Thanks for the confirmation on the VA distributor .

[BobbyB]

Madbill .... correct on the distributor . Current one is an MSD mechanical advance unit since the car spent time on road courses . That`s behind me for the foreseeable future . I know people dump on the MSD unit , but I`ve gotten almost 10 years and 11,000 miles on it with one cap replacement .
You`re one step ahead of me ..... or I`m one step behind you . I have a recurved vacuum advance Duraspark unit sitting on the workbench that I hope to get installed this weekend.

Also , FWIW , got to play some yesterday and started dropping IFR`s and MJ on primary side ...... leaner I went on IFR`s more driveability suffered and same on the MJ. I went from a 76 to a 73 MJ and had all sorts of problems . Went to a 78 ( 76 came in carb ) and 90% of the issues went away and plugs are starting to clean up .

Also put a Wagner adjustable PCV valve on the car and will play some with that this weekend .

Maybe the Duraspark will then clear up the rest of it .

Please keep us posted about the adjustable PCV valve.