Gerry Benson Asks … Why is My Chevy Distributor RotorWay Past the No. 1 Cap Terminal at TDC?
Q: I recently acquired a 1968 Chevy truck with what is probably a replacement 350 engine. It sat a long time and was in unknown condition. I thought it might run if it could get fuel and spark. I made sure it turned over freely, then discovered no spark. I replaced the coil, then the distributor points, condenser, rotor, and cap. I’ve got good spark now at the points and 12 volts to the coil and points area.
At the start of the project, I put it on TDC [top dead denter], turned it over, and at the No. 1 hole, it gave a “whoosh” to my finger. I then lined up the zero mark on the balancer with the timing pointer—but the rotor points between No. 1 and the next terminal, No. 8, on the cap.
The mark may be wrong, so I was going to try to establish absolute TDC with some tool, but
