Carbon tracking through rotor. More HEI woes.

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You could always ditch the HEI and go back to a Chrysler performance system. We know you won't have problems with that! :poke::rolleyes:

If it were up to me, I'd go with a dual points distributor. But, bro owns the car and says HEI stays. Now that I think about it, I might keep a points distributor in the trunk. Vacuum sealed package and a distributor wrench.
 
Really thinking outside the box here.

Make a dist shaft out of a non electrically conductive material.
 
I think David Lee Roth said it best...

"We're running a little bit hot tonight" tone down the output voltage
 
If it were up to me, I'd go with a dual points distributor. But, bro owns the car and says HEI stays. Now that I think about it, I might keep a points distributor in the trunk. Vacuum sealed package and a distributor wrench.

Smart move. It's good to have options out on the road. Make sure you add a ballast resistor and a coil to the bag.
 
Testing on the 340 was delayed by a bunch of other projects.
Here is what we found this past weekend:
Average gap between rotor tip and button in the cap was .120". We extended the brass rotor tab and now have an average gap of .030".

Drilled a hole in another cap and checked rotor phasing with a timing light. Basically, the phasing is way off. The rotor is pointing at plastic, not the cap button. We are looking for a reluctor that has the proper phasing. Ehrenberg sells them on Ebay sometimes. Or I may have this one machined with a new keyway.

Got to get back to the other projects, so another progress report will be a few weeks away. Thanks, again FABO members.
 
Screenshot_20200602-221046.png
The reluctor I have has two keyways one for big bock And one for small block, any chance you have it installed on the BB keyway?

Note the arrows for rotation direction
 
^^I nearly mentioned this.........."rotor phasing"
 
Testing on the 340 was delayed by a bunch of other projects.
Here is what we found this past weekend:
Average gap between rotor tip and button in the cap was .120". We extended the brass rotor tab and now have an average gap of .030".

Drilled a hole in another cap and checked rotor phasing with a timing light. Basically, the phasing is way off. The rotor is pointing at plastic, not the cap button. We are looking for a reluctor that has the proper phasing. Ehrenberg sells them on Ebay sometimes. Or I may have this one machined with a new keyway.

The basic causes to get it that far off are reversed leads on the pickup, regardless of color or connector, and improper orientation of the reluctor.

By the way someone mentioned a "ceramic rotor." Ceramics do not necessarily guarantee a great insulator. During WWII there was some ceramic that turned out to be VERY poor at RF frequencies. Remember, ceramics are basically just overheated mud and dirt, and "anything" could be in there

Got to get back to the other projects, so another progress report will be a few weeks away. Thanks, again FABO members.
 
Mine has the two keyways. It's installed correctly. We tried to install it in the big block location but, that made the phasing even worse.
 
If your brother insists the GM HEI stays, tell him next time it gives him problems to; A. Call AAA, B. Fix it himself, C. Change the hybrid stuff back to Mopar.
 
Mine has the two keyways. It's installed correctly. We tried to install it in the big block location but, that made the phasing even worse.

Have you tried switching pickup wires?
 
If your brother insists the GM HEI stays, tell him next time it gives him problems to; A. Call AAA, B. Fix it himself, C. Change the hybrid stuff back to Mopar.

A. Already had to do that when I was driving it.
B. I can't let it whoop me.
C. He's heard so much good about HEI, that he won't give it up.
 
Have you tried switching pickup wires?

Somewhere I found information about polarity of the pickup wires. They are wired correctly. I don't want to swap them 'just to see' because I think it will damage the module or cause a weak spark. I think we are on the right track with rotor phasing and rotor gap. There are some guys here on FABO that rave about HEI. I think it was Trailbeast that sold HEI kits for Mopars. So, we're not giving up.
But, any long trips with that car and there's gonna be a points distributor boxed up in the trunk.
 
Somewhere I found information about polarity of the pickup wires. They are wired correctly. I don't want to swap them 'just to see' because I think it will damage the module or cause a weak spark.

No, you are thinking wrong. All it does is change the spark position. It's an AC signal. Wired one way, the first pulse is positive, the second negative. You swap them, they are reversed, and displaced in time. Swapping them IS THE WAY to find out if that is the cause of rotor phase problems.

Wire color is sometimes wrong. Swap them and see, and make darn sure the reluctor is correct
 
No, you are thinking wrong. All it does is change the spark position. It's an AC signal. Wired one way, the first pulse is positive, the second negative. You swap them, they are reversed, and displaced in time. Swapping them IS THE WAY to find out if that is the cause of rotor phase problems.

Wire color is sometimes wrong. Swap them and see, and make darn sure the reluctor is correct
Interesting. Yeh, what I read was a certain wire color should go to the small connector on the module. Worth a try, with the swap.
Reluctor is installed correctly.
 
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