the 66 with the chevy 305. i went today to look at a 71 ranger. decided to keep the 66. purchased all the needed items for tune up. came home and said to myself, im gonna do this. and take the truck to work tonight. soooo
after about an hour. i was ready to put back the wires. i originally marked the old wires to help with putting them back. but i marked the wires, and not where they were on distributer.. then i look at a cover that the distributer has on it giving numbers to wires, i think. but i am pretty sure that the wires i took off were not matching the cap settings. then i look at block and it happens to have numbers there too. and then i look in the middle of engine in front of carb and see what says.. firing order. with more numbers. i am lost. not sure what to do, or which goes where. i know that i tried one set up and when the truck sounded like it was gonna start, boom. then i look and one of the wires blew off. im tired. no sleep since yesterday and dont have time today. gotta go to work. tomorrow will be a heck of a day playing with wires.
im glad i did what i did tho, she needed it. and for a guy who dont do mechanics, i did pretty good....till the wires

 

Lets make this real easy for you.

Take out the number 1 spark plug (front on driver's side) and put your finger over the plug hole. Now have somebody bump the motor over until it tries to blow your finger off the hole. Look at your timing marks on the harmonic balancer and try to bump it as close to the "TDC" or "0" mark as possible.

Take the dist cap off and see where the rotor tip is pointing. That's where the number one cylinder wire goes.

Now put the cap back on and put the number 1 wire in that hole of the cap, directly above where the rotor was pointing.

A SBC has a firing order of 18436572. 1357 are down the drivers side with 1 in the front and 7 in the back. 2468 are down the right side, again with 2 in the front and 8 in the back.

Now all you need to do is place the wires on the cap in firing order and route them to the right plugs.

If you are unsure of which way to go around the cap, let me know. I have a neat little trick on remembering what way a distributor turns if you need it.

Good luck and have fun,
SPark

 

thanks for the reply. sounds pretty easy. think ill give it a try now. hopefully i can get it done right. i know that when i took the cap off it was pointed south. lets say towards the front of the truck. can i assume thats 1? or is it a must that i put the finger in the whole and try that.
Look at your timing marks on the harmonic balancer and try to bump it as close to the "TDC" or "0" mark as possible
as for that part.... i am clueless

 

You have to find TDC (top dead center) on the #1 cylinder to know where to start with the plug wires since you don't know where they were. It's really pretty easy.

Behind the lower pulley on the front of the motor is a steel ring that looks like a pulley without any grooves cut in it. That's the harmonic balancer. It has your timing marks on it. Like a flat pulley, if that makes sense? It's the piece your lower pulley bolts to on the front end of the crankshaft. When you get your finger puffed out of the hole, look at the top side of that steel piece (the harmonic balancer) for little marks scribed across it. There will be several marks. One will have "TDC" of "0" stamped beside it. That is your top dead center mark on the balancer.

Bolted to the front timing cover, under the water pump, is a tin tab that points out towards that balancer. It's usually at about the 9:00 o'clock position on the right side of the motor (passenger's side) or It has either an angled pointer or a step cut out of it or a hole in it. You want to line the marks on the balancer up with that pointer. Once they line up you are at TDC. It doesn't have to be perfect, you just want to get fairly close so you can decide what terminal on the cap lines up with the rotor tip.

You might have to clean dirt/grease/oil off the balancer to see the marks.

Let me know if you need more,
SPark

 

went out there and gave it a quick wirl...fails again. im going to try that above mentioned tomorrow. hopefully that will help me. i figured that when i did the cap, since i replaced what i took off in the exact spot, that the one would be at the same spot. question, do the wires go in a exact place...? or do i just get them to fit. lenth wise. i tried to number wires to help remind me. but i have too many numbers going on now. i did not do such a good job with the taking notes prior to start. all was going good till them dam wires.
thanks for all the help LM14. really do appreciate it. any chance pics might help me? should i calmly and slowly try and do what you told me. or should i try and get some pics to follow? again, i am not much of a mechanic. felt good gettin under there and wrenchn, just a bit dissapointing when my result is a truck that will not turn on..

 

It is a common error for this on Chevrolets with the dizzy way in the back.

Just make sure you are on number one and at TDC. Remember the crank turns four times for one complete cycle. Needs to be on the compression stroke.

And do the wires per the post. Place it on the nearest post to the rotor.

Garbz

 

The harmonic balancer(big fat round pulley without grroves for fan belts has 1 grrove carved front to rear...this is the timing mark...if the balancer is all greasy and so on, get that area cleaned and if you have some white out, dap some so it goes in the groove...wipe the excess off of the outer part...so whatever is in the groove stays...This will make seeing timing mark easy when setting timing with a timing light if the need comes up. On the timing cover, theres the tab with all of the pointy things and most likely a hole in it...clean that sucker off really good as those are stamped with numbers too, but are usually a really light stamp and thus hard to read.
The 0(zero or hole) is TDC(top dead center) thats what they are referring to with the #1 plug out and finger over hole and bumpng till air pushes finger out...with the plug out and all as mentioned earlier, the timing mark should be really close to the 0 on the timing pointer...pop the cap off and put the plug wire on and so forth thru the firing order.
As for the trick to figuring out the direction the dist. goes in firing order and so on...I would love to hear that as I get that confused at times too depending what Im working on.


- cs65

 

I can't believe these ford nuts are giving advise on how to work on a chevrolet!! LOL

 

I have been out of school for 32 years, but I will always remember my shop teacher sharing one thing with us.

If you shoot a BB into the port of the vacuum advance canister (where the hose slips over the little bung) and picture that BB spinning around inside the distributor after going through the advance canister, that's the way the rotor turns.

66/86305:
You would probably really learn a lot from a good Chiltons or Motors manual. Make the investment for your year motor and it will have the step by step, pictures, timing mark information and probably answer all your engine questions.

As for helping a bowtie motor...
It had been at least 15 years since we raced them and I hadn't built a bowtie in all that time. 2 years ago a friend called to get some help with his sprint car motor and we ended up building 2 motors for him over a 2 year period. They're easy to work on, they just put the distributor on the wrong end of the motor!

SPark

 

Crank turns two times for all cylinders to fire. Cam and dizzy turn once.

 

Yea BarryMc I can't believe this either I mean the website is Labled Ford Truck Enthusiasts not Ford truck/ Chevrolet engines in them Enthusiasts LOL

 

well fellas i want to say thanks!!!! with your help, i completed my mission this morning shortly after getting home from work. without your help i would be at the same spot i left yesterday/. again i THANK YOU.

truck started right up, ran smooth, and felt a bit more powerful. plugs that came out were discusting. glad i did it. no more smoke coming from the hood. as was the case prior to tune up. i had oil spitting out of the rubber gromet in the pass side of manifold. so far no smoke from hood area......

NEW PROBLEM. i noticed while i was driving that at times, i would be leaving a cloud of smoke behind me. need your expertise again, if poss.
again i thank you fellas.

 

Is your smoke coming all the time, when you let off or when you accelerate?

Could just pull it and put a nice FORD motor in it!

Enjoy,
SPark

 

think it comes when i get off the gas. and sometimes when i get on the gas. id love to swap a ford motor. but i wont be able to do that job, i have no clue what it would cost, got a baby girl on the way- so cant just throw money into truck. and finally, since the body aint in the best shape, if i could get more miles out of this engine till some of the body work is done that would be great. id like to get the water to stop entering truck when it rains. get rid of some of the rot. maybe one day it will be ford all over.
i was hoping maybe its just smoking all the old out. plugs and oil were black.

 

If it smokes when you let off and coast a while, or when you start it after it sits for a while, I would take a strong look at valve stem seals. Not a bad change but you need a few "special" type tools you probably wouldn't have just lying around.

SPark