1971454ILvette

Installed new dist (HEI conversion), New coil (Accel 8140), New carb (770 Holley) on my 71 BB. First we wired in new coil we turned the ignition switch to on. My first question is that the only wires that hook on the + and - sides of the coil is the 2 from the dist and 1 more that hooks on the the + side. That is correct right? The wire from the firewall to the + side of the coil started smoking so we unhooked it and put in the old coil. We wired it the same and no smoke. OK on to the next step.

Next We got cylinder #1 on TDC of compression stroke - lined up the timing mark - put in dist and lined up rotor to plug wire #1. The car would start and kind of stumble a little. It would then back fire. I think we may have flooded it, but I am not real sure. The car is in my garage that has low ceilings so I decided to postpone the rest of the adventure till I get the tires on her and we can roll her outside.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also if someone could look on their coil and see what wires are where I would be very grateful. Would it be possible that the new coil could be bad??

Thanks

bence13_33

If it is starting and then stumbling out that means you are getting spark. So with that taken into consideration I would think you have the coil and HEI hooked up correctly.

Is it back firing out of the carburetor or out of the exhaust? Back firing out of the intake means you are too advanced, back firing out of the exhaust means you are too retarded. My recommendation would be tighten down your distributor to where you can turn it by hand but not to the point that it's so loose that it can vibrate out of time. Have someone get in the car and try to start it. The other person working the distributor needs to try advancing/retarding it until you get it to where it will idle. Once you have it to where the car will idle then you can use a timing light to get your timing straight.

The fact that it stumbles and runs for a few moments and cuts out means you are close. It sounds like with some distributor work you can get her straightened out....but it will take some tinkering.

Crash Dummy

Possibly you have the distributor in 180 degrees out? Or maybe just a tooth off. I'd raise it out and spin the rotor 180 degrees and drop it right back in to make sure. If it doesn't fire at all then at least you know that is not the problem. Just an idiot test.

Guessing you switched to HEI spark plug wires?

Aaron-74

You have to switch to HEI wires. Normal wires won't fit.

Sounds like you're close. Just give it some tinkering. But, be REALLY careful. When I was setting the timing on Jmans 82, I touched something and go an EXTREME jolt of juice that put me out of the game for a few hours...

Just keep the fingers away from the power terminal on the cap and you should be okay.

1971454ILvette

yeah I must have spark. If I was 180 off how would it sound? Would it try and run at all? And I did switch to shielded wires that the guy who rebuilt the dist said would work. What do you think about the smoke? Could it be a bad coil?

Thanks a ton

Aaron-74

If it was 180 off...it probably woulnd't run at all..just backfire and pop.