I recently had to change out my hall effect sensor or stator or pickup whatever you want to call it. To do so i had to remove the distributer. I restabed the distributer per the istructions in the tech articles and when i start the car without the spout connector it runs and sounds beautifully and the timing is set at 11 degrees. When i out the connector in my car struggles to maintain an idle and sounds really rough as if it is is dieing. Any thoughts on the cause or how to fix? thanks

 

you probably stabbed it wrong

 

look in the tech articles here for proper procedure

 

Ok well i thought i followed them correctly the only part i am not sure about is where the markings are for 0 degrees on the distributer and block i would post a picture but i can seem to figure out how....

 

so then dont worry about it.... thats just a convience thing

 

Ok, that makes sense, as long as i have the rotor pointing to the #1 spark when the car is at TDC on the Compression Stroke then i have the distributer stabbed correctly. Then to set the car base timing i take out the spout connector and use the timing light. I rotate the ditributor housing (not the shaft obviously) while shooting the timing light till i get a base timing of 10. This sets my distributer to the exact position it was in before taking it out in the first place. Leading me to believe that the timing is correct. However after going back and restabbing again, my car still seems to be pinging with the spout connector in, and generally running crappy... Could it be that my spark plugs got gunked up or something from trying to start the car co many times earlier? It just seems odd that the issue disappears when the spout connector is out.

 

it doesnt seem odd at all, your car is advancing timing with the spout in, so if you stab the distributor incorrectly, you can have too much advance, which will cause your pinging

double and triple check yourself. And inspect your balance

 

You can be just a tooth off and it can still look right. Like adder said check your balancer to see if it seems to have spun at all leading you to a mistime it.

 

ok, first off thanks for sticking with me and answering all these newbie questions. I checked my balancer and its not moving at all so i think its safe to say it has not been moved (i know i never moved it and i have successfully changed the base timing of the car in the past off of it). My question is: If i can check the base timing with the timing light and its at 10 degrees doesn't that mean that it is stabbed correctly? if it were not wouldn't it be impossible to hit 10 degrees base timing?

 

Well i think i have this under control now.... i just ran it a little while and the computer seemed to adapt, runs good now with a little exception... but i started another post for that. Thanks all for your input