Hey, i changed my 84 z28 to a holley carb and an HEI vaccuum advance distributor, and i cant seem to find the tach or battery wire. I found one brown one that plugs into the distributor cap, but i cant find the other. Im not sure if the brown is the tach signal or the power. What color and what harness is the other plug in? and which plug is the brown? thanks!! and PS...is there a way to tell TDC without taking the motor apart? Im not quite sure if my timing is right, i just installed the rotor in the same direction it was in. But im not sure if it may be different between the ESC distributor and the vac advance style.

 

Ok i found it but the car still wont start. Just need to know how to determine TDC so i can set the timing. Or if there is an easy way to just get it to start then i can time it by ear at least

 

Did you check to make sure you're getting spark in general? If you hook up your timing light, you should get a strobe as you crank. By your description, it sounds like you dropped the new dist. in close to where the old one was. You can use your timing light to check against the timing mark and swing it back in place as you crank the engine over.

 

yeah i checked that it had spark. I actually got it to run but it still runs like crap the same as before. i changed the wires plugs and the entire distributor, new cap and rotor. Im running out of ideas. I dont have a timing light. I played around with the cap position and the plugs untill i got it to start. It would only run at one position so i guess its close. It backsfires and has a miss or 2 when it does run though. Maybe i have something broken internally which would **** me off quite a bit

 

Are you sure you don't have a plug wire or two crossed?

 

checked twice redid it once then checked it again. But im gona just change the wires tommorow just to eliminate that as a cause. Ill try to make a video tommorow of how it is running.

 

if you take out the number 1 spark plug and use a screwdriver to stick in the plug hole turn the motor over by hand until it comes all the way to the top then take the cap off and the rotor should be pointing at the number 1 plug wire

 

Not quite. Each piston comes up to TDC twice during a full cycle of the engine. You want #1 at TDC on the Compression Stroke, otherwise timing could be off by 180 degrees. Using the stick your finger in the plug hole methodis the easiest way to determine #1 TDC on the compression stroke.

 

you must have some pretty small fingers to fit in the plug hole and i forgot to mention that usually you can find the compression stroke by putting your finger over the hole and you can feel the compression come out

 

tommorow im gona pull the valve cover off and make sure its at TDC and redo the timing. It has to be whats wrong with it. Its been raining/snowing so i havent really had a chance to make a video or play with it anymore. I just put a new thermostat and gasket in cause it was leaking and the t stat didnt work anyways when i stuck it in a pot of boiling water and if it doesnt run after this im gona do a compression and leakdown test on it tommorow and really get to the bottom of it