Distributor replacement with pictures and tips for a V-6 (Page 5/12)
Max The Chainsaw JUN 22, 01:14 AM

quote
Originally posted by jetman:

If you have a good induction timing light, hook it up to your coil wire and you will be timing for both your #1 cylinder and your #4 cylinder at the same time. I just tried it myself and it worked like a charm. For years I've taken the difference between #1 and #4 as I set the timing, this is so much simpler.

I wish that I could remember the forum member that had suggested this idea, I really wanted to give credit where credit is due for this teriffic idea.



I was about to suggest that as well. I was shown the coil wire trick when I first started in mechanical work in the mid 70's. Sure does make it easier to average out when you can see both at once!!

Great write up BTW.

Max

Edit: WoHooooo Page 2 is MINE!!!

[This message has been edited by Max The Chainsaw (edited 06-22-2007).]

Fierobsessed AUG 21, 06:22 AM
Excellent write up!

One thing I never liked about the Fiero's distributor, is the style of the pickup coil. The rusted/bent steel fingers on the pickup coil and on the magnet do not promote any kind of consistancy on the firing across all 6 cylenders. I was always a big fan of the star shaped pointed pickup and magnet. I just got finished rebuilding a 2.8 distributor using parts from a used 4.3 (blazer/S10) distributor. Far superior parts, much like the ones you installed. I'm hoping that this will eliminate some of the roughness that the Fiero has always had at an idle. You can REALLY feel the pointers when they line up now.
fierohoho AUG 21, 10:28 AM

quote
Originally posted by Fierobsessed:

Excellent write up!

One thing I never liked about the Fiero's distributor, is the style of the pickup coil. The rusted/bent steel fingers on the pickup coil and on the magnet do not promote any kind of consistancy on the firing across all 6 cylenders. I was always a big fan of the star shaped pointed pickup and magnet. I just got finished rebuilding a 2.8 distributor using parts from a used 4.3 (blazer/S10) distributor. Far superior parts, much like the ones you installed. I'm hoping that this will eliminate some of the roughness that the Fiero has always had at an idle. You can REALLY feel the pointers when they line up now.



Any chance you'll do a write up on this?
Fierobsessed AUG 21, 08:36 PM
Guess I am kicking myself for not taking pictures as I rebuilt this distributor

Before I do any sort of writeup, I am going to send the distributor to my father so he can use it in his car, mostly to verify that this mod does what I think it will do, or for that matter work at all. One thing I can say, is the plastic housed pickup coil itself, from the S10/Blazer, is of far better quality then the one from the Fiero. The Fiero one was wrapped up in paper and fell apart when I was removing it.
fierohoho AUG 21, 10:51 PM
Interesting, please let us know if it works out and what your dad thinks of the upgrade.

Also, what year S-10 4.3 did the parts come from and to clarify, did you use the Fiero base, shaft and gear?

Steve

[This message has been edited by fierohoho (edited 08-21-2007).]

Fierobsessed AUG 22, 03:55 AM
I'm guessing that it was a 90+/- Blazer/S10 Something of that vintage. Possibly all chevy 4.3's.

And you are exactly right. I used the Fiero's shaft, gear, and base (with the plate).

It was a REALLY easy build, Just had to be very careful not to break the magnetic star from the 4.3 while pressing it off then onto the Fiero's shaft. All the parts from the 4.3 pickup assembly fit flawlessly into the 2.8's distributor. Who knows, there may even be a distributor available that has the good parts, (camaro 3.1 maybe? I don't know) I might go back to the U-pull it for more research, maybe pick up another fiero dizzy and do the conversion, and take pics this time
leppy_89 MAR 12, 07:43 PM

quote
Rotate your distributor until you have the timing set to 10 * then hook up to #4 plug wire, you want to set the timing at the average of these two readings. I'm a little chicken, I wear a glove while rotating the distributor.
Tighten the hold down bolt and button everything up.



Okay, I understand the "set to 10*" part, and I get the "hook up to #4 plug wire", but when you say "you want to set the timing at the average" how exactly do you do that?

How do you adjust the timing? Maybe I'd have to actually try doing this to get a better idea, but I'm still at a loss. Sorry for the dumb question, just trying to learn.
jetman MAR 12, 08:02 PM
Due to the normal wear in the system, there is a little slop in the cam shaft, timing gears and crank shaft. Set the timing so that the average timing of both #1 and #4 is 10*. You may have the timing of #1 at 11* and the timing of #4 at 9* which is perfectly fine.

I did mention that if you have a good induction light, just hook up to the coil wire, you'll just set the timing once and be done with it as you're getting both #1 and #4 at the same time.
JazzMan MAR 13, 09:58 AM
Yep, there are actually three timing grooves on the harmonic dampener. The wide one is for cylinders #1 and #4, the other two are for the other two pairs of cylinders. If you use the coil wire to trigger the timing light you'll get a flash for every cylinder and each should like up with one of the timing marks.

To clarify what averaging means, say you check the timing for #1 and it's at 11°, then without making any adjustments you check the timing for #4 and it shows 13°. By adjusting the timing to 9° on #1 and therefor 11° on #4 the average timing of the two is 10°.

The reason for this is to compensate for production tolerances in the machining of the crank. Though it's possible for the three crank planes to be out of tolerance by a degree or two, in practice I haven't seen a crank that was more than half a degree out. Also, timing isn't all that critical, you could be off a degree or two and not even notice a significant difference in driveability.

JazzMan
AutoTech MAR 13, 10:44 AM

quote
Originally posted by Fierobsessed:




I have been searching Hi and Low for these damn replacement pieces, but I cant find them anywhere

Anybody got a clue?