With out hearing the noise in person it is vary vary vary head to say what it could be.
As a start to rule out the belts, pullyies can have rust and make the belts make noise, remove the belts and run the motor and see if the noise is still there.
Dave ----

 

Ok , got initial timing @10.5 BTC or so . My fancy supped up Pertronix Distributor has a wire strain connector that rubs firmly against the thermostat water outlet keeping distributor from moving freely counter-clockwise Also the distributor clamp is shaped to hold the shaft closely . How the rubber strain relief has not melted is mind boggling ! It may yet even though temp got up to 195*+. Finally got distributor moved enough to get 10.5* BTC . Hope I have no melting. I may call Pertronix 2morrow & complain .
I cannot get idle down . Motor sounds good but I would like it about 900 or 800rpms
About to see what my total timing is .........back later............

 

KOOL , 2500rpms +/- 100 , advance is 21* .
At first I thought this was bad , but remembered to add the 105.5* & I get 31.5 +/- a degrees or two...........I am almost ecstatic.......
Temp is staying @ 190 but I can fix that when I repair my fan shroud & change oil & drive down the street............
NOW to get my rpms down @ idle & hopfully not melt the distributor rubber part....... Current rpms 1200 -1100 or so.......
Scraping seems to some better
Noticed my fan belt has teeth Pulles have no teeth , they are v-grooved Do I need a different belt ? Belt is old an has small crack right below the teeeth openings . I will change it but should I get a toothed belt ???
FuzzFace2 your help is amazing & appreciated exponentially........I wrote your directions down on a extra large paper & took it with me to the drive-way........
Hooking up vacuum gauge tomorrow..........

 

On nt able to turn the dist more yo can move each plug wire 1 spot over and then turn the dist Back so you now can move it and reset back to 10* BTDC.
Dave ----

 

Do not fully understand . Are you saying to just move the top after I move the plug wires or whole distributor ?
I think I am beginning to see...move whole distributor , no just the cap , I think ...That rubber strain relief is coming out the bottom of dist. but I think I have a better idea of what to do..........
I will go out to truck & look , & probably will understand better then !
Thanx...........

 

Ok let me see if I can explain it to you.
I take it you cant turn the dist. CCW (counter clock wise).
So turn the dist. CW (clock wise) the distance of 1 tower plug wire.
Now move each plug wire 1 place CCW.
If done right it should be close to start but to see how close set #1 piston at TDC and see if the rotor is pointing to the #1 plug wire in the cap.
Once you know it is at TDC or if it did start you will need to check the timing again like above.

Did that help?
Dave ----

Ps I think that is easier than pulling the dist. and moving the gear 1 tooth to do the same thing.

 

Yeah, that is better picture.............This will work with a Pertronix dist. & electronic module I hope........
Been busy most of day dealing with fan shroud rehab . Will give this wire moving try tomorrow , if rain will let me..........

 

A distributor is a distributor. It's a housing for a trigger (points, magnetic, optical, etc), a series of contact points out to each spark plug, a mechanism to change the phasing (timing) of when the rotor is pointed at a particular point when the trigger tells a spark to magically appear, and a rotor that is rigidly attached to the shaft that spins in the middle.
Maybe it's more than that, but that's the "nutshell" version for the moment.

The trigger mechanism does not care how the phasing is changed. Whether by rotating the body of the distributor, rotating the cap on the body (usually not possible due to "keying" of the components to only attach to each other one way), or moving the plug wires from one tower to the next. Like the others were saying.
Does any of that change the timing? Yes. Do you have to re-time it anytime you move/modify anything with the distributor? Absolutely!
But moving the plug wires, or removing the distributor and re-orienting it to line up slightly different, doesn't hurt anything. Just gives you more leeway to adjust and fine-tune the timing.

In case you did not get it from the conversations already, don't bother to call Pertronix to complain about their distributor not fitting properly. Not their fault, and they should not care.
Yes, their unit might have components of a different size and shape than the original, or they might not. But they for sure have more wires and likely coming out at a different point. Because they don't know where each and every component on each and every Ford is going to be, they put it where they think it works best and let the end-user deal with the last few steps.
Either way, not all 302's were made with the same accessories attached to them and even Ford probably did not get every single distributor exactly the same either, over about 70 years. And certainly with so many overseas manufacturers joining the fray, they're not likely all going to be precisely the same as your original either. Even those that are supposed to be original replacements.

All the major dimensions would have been identical, but one thing that may or may not have varied slightly during manufacture, would be the exact position of the gear on the shaft. Meaning that the rotor might not point exactly the same place it does with the original distributor and Pertronix (nor MSD, Mallory, ACCEL, and any other non-factory supplier) might be even further off.

Meaning it's ALWAYS up to the installer to make sure that the unit is installed on their particular engine in such a way as to be able to set the timing to a reasonable value.
That value being unknown to the manufacturer. You might be putting it in an engine that was specified to run with 4° BTDC timing. Or one that might have used 7 degrees as it's initial setting. Or 9 degrees. Or even 4 degrees AFTER top dead center.
Meaning that, for any given thermostat housing, air pump, vacuum fitting, vacuum advance canister, or whatever else might get in the way, you might have to install the distributor, then remove and re-install it three or four times before you get things lined up just right to put your timing right where you want it for this particular engine.
Yes, that means that sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you have to remove it and re-install it to get it just right.
And in some cases, such as putting a TFI distributor in an Explorer engine, or a regular distributor in an Explorer engine (which never had a distributor at all from the factory) you actually have to grind off appendages and relocate accessories, and even change things like the heater hose attaching points to allow the distributor to even turn a couple of degrees. Much less 10 degrees or more!

Truth in advertising, some of that is just guessing on my part. For all I know every single 289/302/351W distributor ever produced was made precisely the same way. So each and every roll-pin hole in the shaft to anchor the gear in place, was drilled in precisely the same spot every time over multi-millions of units. But the existence of different size caps, different size vacuum advance canisters, different engine accessories, everything else I said should be accurate.
In other words, no matter who you buy your distributor from, "your results may vary" and you may have to move it over a tooth on the gear, or move the plug wires one position over.
It's not just Fords either. Every engine I've ever worked on with a distributor needed to be "test assembled" in this are to be sure you could adjust the timing to the desired level.
You're just lucky enough to be finding out about a lot of this stuff for the first time!

And lets not get started on how many different damper setups Ford used over the years, with timing marks in different locations!
The timing pointer moved around the area multiple times, depending on which front accessory drive / water pump system was used. Unfortunately lots of 302 rebuilders have run afoul of having their new harmonic damper fit just right, but turn out to have the timing marks stamped seemingly half way around the ring!
Sounds like yours are in the right spot, but I always worry about new parts... In the last few years, the practice of the manufacturers has been to just put multiple sets of marks along different sections of the ring. To cover all the bases and stock fewer parts.

Regarding the "more wires" aspect of your new distributor. First the engine surface around your water neck will hopefully never get hot enough to melt the rubber/plastic bits.
In theory it's going to always remain below 250 degrees and your rubber probably melts at 400 maybe?
There are plenty of things on an engine that you should not let them touch. But the front cover and thermostat housings are not among them.

Sorry for being more long-winded than normal. It's almost 2 am and I'm slumped on the keyboard typing in my sleep.
You know what they used to say about 100 monkeys banging away on typewriters...

Paul

 

OneTonBasecamp : I enjoy your post always ! I may not agree with everything , or like your delivery , but that is very rare , so I usually lean something , or you reinforce my wondering logic ? ! ?
I welcome long explanations cuz I want al the facts I can get , because I overthink , things so very easy & question everything because I have been surprised so many times thinking I was doing something right & then , pow.......you do something wrong because of some unknown detail that you missed , forgot , or your source forgot to include .............etc.........ect .....

 

I was just getting warmed up. That was the "Reader's Digest (remember them?) Condensed Version" I posted.
You should'a seen the full version before I edited it!
Just kidding. That was most of what I typed. Just that sometimes I can really get going to the point of tangential mediation...

Let's see what the next session brings.

Paul