Singlecoil Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Ok, my ea82 nippondenso had a bad vacuum advance so I looked around pull-a-part today for a similar distributor to either completely swap, or swap advances with. No luck. Then on the way home I happened by another junkyard and they had a hitachi that looked pretty much the same except for the different cap and single vacuum advance instead of the two on my nippondenso. I just switched to a Weber carb, so I wasn't using the second vacuum port anyway. I foolishly didn't read my chilton manual and simply swapped the two units without noting where the rotor was. In other words, I've turned a 30 minute job into a 3 hour and counting job. The chilton manual said how to manually turn the crankshaft to 0 degrees on the timing port while feeling the #1 sparkplug hole for the compression stroke. That seemed easy enough, you turn until you feel air coming out of the cylinder, then keep turning until you are lined up at 0. Now what? I tried to remove the distributor and realign it so the rotor was pointing at the #1 sparkplug wire, but that didn't seem to help at all. From what the chilton book says, the firing order is 1-3-2-4. It is a little unclear as to which is which, however. As near as I can tell, facing the engine (both knees touching the front bumper), #1 is the nearest one on your left, #3 is the further one on the left, #2 is the nearest one on your right, and #4 is the further on on the right. Is that correct? Is there something I'm missing here? I guess that was a rhetorical question. I've checked the coil wire for spark, and checked the spark plug wires to 1 and 3, and they both have spark, so I'm guessing it has to be timing. Does it matter where the wires are placed on the cap as long as they are in the correct order? I'm guessing it does, but as long as #1 is at TDC and the rotor is pointing toward the #1 sparkplug lead it shouldn't matter I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooziewhatsit Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 it sounds like you've done everything right so far your firing order is correct, as are your cylinder numbers. Surefire way from the FSM to align the distributor: -Remove passenger side timing belt cover -rotate engine by hand so the cam dot is at 10:30 o'clock (other big holes will be at the cardinal directions) -Put disty in, with rotor pointing to #1 plug = nearest to the hill-holder spring (should be marked on the cap also) That being said, you should be close enough after aligning the flywheel to 0* after feeling air coming out of cylinder 1. Oh yea, the firing order 1, 3, 2, 4, goes counter-clockwise around the cap. After that, you should be able to adjust the disty slightly both ways until it starts. good luck, -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singlecoil Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Well, somehow I managed to get it goin'! I'd love to give Dave the credit, but I walked out right after I posted and did some more tinkering. I ended up reinstalling the disty with the rotor pointing toward the rear plug terminal with the crankshaft at 0 degrees. That was how the old one was I think. I installed the plugwires and cranked and cranked. It barely came to life. In fact I had to rotate the disty a little to get it to run at all. I then proceeded to set the timing to 8 degrees with the light. I had to unplug the vacuum advance otherwise it wouldn't run. After I plugged the vacuum advance back in, the RPM's plummetted to 500. I adjusted the idle and idle mixture on the Weber and it runs like a champ. The idle is MUCH smoother than before. I think the whole disty was bad, not just the vacuum advance. It had an audible click as the shaft was rotated by hand and the pinion could be slightly pushed in and out with another audible click. I guess it is 20 years old. Anyway, 25 bucks for the distributor, and 20 bucks for a cap and rotor and order has been restored in the universe. Thanks Dave! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooziewhatsit Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 It had an audible click as the shaft was rotated by hand and the pinion could be slightly pushed in and out with another audible click. I guess it is 20 years old.Thanks Dave! Sounds like that disty was shot! Glad you got it working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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