At the risk of pushing the friendship here, I have a couple more questions. I am paranoid about making a mistake when I put all this together. So my flywheel has a PM1-4 mark, there is no PM5-8 mark. I have had the flywheel off the car and in my hands, and there is definitely no PM5-8 mark. So to install the left distributor (closest to the front of the car), I need to find TDC of cylinder 5 using a gauge. I know this is a simple question, but again, paranoia. Does my diagram below show the correct cylinder numbers? Image Unavailable, Please Login My second question is about spark plug wires. I have 2 new distributor caps, each of them has the numbers 1,3,4,2. Because the firing order on the right bank (closest to rear of car) is 1,3,4,2 I assume the numbers on the cap relate to the cylinder numbers. I am guessing its a similar setup on the left bank (closest to front of car), which has a firing order f 5,7,8,6. Should number 1 on the cap go to cylinder 5, number 3 on the cap go to cylinder 7, number 4 on the cap go to cylinder 8, and number 2 on the cap go to cylinder 6? Image Unavailable, Please Login Last question, the workshop manual I have states an R1 points gap of 0.35. Is that what everyone finds works best? Thank you.
....actually I just had a look at the wiring diagram I have and it seems to confirm 2 of my 3 questions. Image Unavailable, Please Login
That's quite unusual (must be aftermarket or maybe from a single distributor euro version?), but you don't need to get so fancy (as getting the distributors installed does not require extreme precision, and they just need to be close enough to get the engine running so that you can use a timing light to set their final positions). (Assuming that the PM1-4 mark is correct) Set the crankshaft to PM1-4 with cylinder #1 and the end of its compression stroke (i.e., #1 ready to fire), make a mark (or put a piece of tape) at the 12 o'clock position of crankshaft pulley, then rotate the crankshaft 90 deg clockwise to bring that mark to the 3 o'clock position = that's the cyl #5 firing location.
Thanks again Steve. Yeah I thought the flywheel must be off another model. I used a gauge a while back to triple check the PM1-4 mark did actually line up with TDC on cylinder one. I will take your advice and not stress too much about the mm accuracy of cylinder 5 TDC. 90 degree difference on the crank pulley is easy enough to achieve. What do you guys think of a .35 points gap for the R1 points? normal?
Doesn't seem unreasonable as that's what specified in the 308GT4 WSM -- although I always used a dwell meter to check/verify when my ex-308 was still using points.
My old Pontiacs used a similar points gap, with the added thrill that if you missed the socket adjusting it running, you lit the bejessus out of your arm!!! Nothing to do with this conversation, only that 30 to 35 is pretty typical on points....
