just rebuilt runs bad

6tfo said

Tomorrow, I will be using a stock points coil, new ballast, new Dist. cap, and the new points distributor. I'm going to once again verify TDC and timing mark alignment using a stop indicator, making sure both valves appear closed on the compression stroke, even putting my finger over the hole. Then I'll set initial timing to 5 BTDC. The engine should run, even if not perfectly. If it doesn't I'll try 10, 15 and back to 0. If it still doesn't run then it's definitely time for the machine shop to get back involved. Previously, in a nice way, the machinist said get your ignition straightened out, then come back to us if there is still a problem.

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I pretty much followed the script above. I was surprised that with the all stock ignition the motor ran half decent at 18 BTDC. Vacuum ports plugged.

I replaced the stock coil with the MSD coil and the engine would not start. Switched them around a couple more times verifying the MSD wouldn't work with the stock set up.

There were still a couple of things I don't understand with the stock set up.
- It also runs at 35 BTDC. If there was any pinging it was hard to tell.
- at 18 BTDC we could turn the dizzy CCW, the RPM increased, turn down idle. this could be done until over 35 DBTC.
- Seems there is still advance being induced without the vacuum connected. (Observed by a timing light against the timing mark.)

The next step is to test the MSD coil. I used a multimeter that I was not familiar with at it measured .8 ohms across the terminals. I will need to verify that reading. On Monday I'll put the MSD box and Dizzy back and use the stock coil and see what happens.

Thanks for everyones help on this.