Setting Distributor to #1

[Henning]

Your dizzy housing should have a kind of notch in the surrounding edge close to the condenser. You have to remove rotor and black disc to see it. When the rotor points to this notch you have tdc at #1.

What's going on here:

 

 

??  Some heavy duty chain used to rope the engine in?

 

henn

[Henning]

Your dizzy housing should have a kind of notch in the surrounding edge close to the condenser. You have to remove rotor and black disc to see it. When the rotor points to this notch you have tdc at #1.

What's going on here:

 

 

??  Some heavy duty chain used to rope the engine in?

 

henn

[Henning]

Your dizzy housing should have a kind of notch in the surrounding edge close to the condenser. You have to remove rotor and black disc to see it. When the rotor points to this notch you have tdc at #1.

What's going on here:

 

 

??  Some heavy duty chain used to rope the engine in?

 

henn

[Mike Nance]

@'76mintgrün'02 I actually used your icon image to orient and clock the distributor it looks like a model 002.

 

 

@Henning I actually popped that line while releasing the chain hoist(I went a bit too fast). Good thing they are replacable, I'm headed to the barn shortly to check out your suggestion.CBD537A9-6B02-403A-AD47-4B844A39742D.heic

[Mike Nance]

@Henningis this the notch you are referring too? I had to turn the body 150degrees for this to line up. 

['76mintgrün'02]

That big notch is for locating the cap on the body.  The little line stamped into the rim just below the notch is the #1 cylinder mark he's referring to.

 

With the engine set to TDC for #1, you can pull the distributor out and relocate it so that the body is clocked the way you like it (with the part number facing forward) and have the rotor pointing at the little line cut into the body.

 

While it is out, take a look at how much play there is between the body and the gear.

 

Some of the 002 distributors have a screw holding the center post on, as opposed to the little clip on the original distributors.  The screw makes it a little easier to remove the center post to service the distributor.  You can pull the felt plug out of the middle to see which style you have and drop a couple of drips of oil in there while you're at it.

 

Based on your last photo, your distributor looks fresh, so you probably won't need to do much to it (like replace fiber washers).  The 002 distributor uses the same style advance weights as your original.  I like those better than the old-style distributors ('74 and before).

Tom

[bergie33]

This little notch is the #1 TDC mark.

 

 

[John76]

My '76 has a mark on the distributor and the mounting flange (next to the clamp nut) in addition to the TDC mark.

When the crank is at TDC (compression stroke), and the rotor is pointing to the TDC mark, and the points are gapped correctly, then the initial timing is "spot on" when the dizzy mark is lined up with the mounting mark.

Don't know if this is true for all cars, but worth a look (if you know where to look).

This makes removing/installing the dizzy much easier.

 

[Mike Nance]

@John76I'll take a look at that tomorrow. Thanks for the information.