Odd ball HEI???

I've been struggling with my HEI swap for a while now. It's an on-again, off-again priority depending on my level of frustration with it. I can never seem to get the pick-ups to meet the triggers to get it to fire. If they meet, then the rotor doesn't point at any of the posts in the cap and vice versa. This is going into a stock '69 Dauntless, so I'm dodging the usual rad hose and manifold to get it in.

Recently I noticed that my dist cap is clocked differently then others. Take a look at the pic - the plug is right by the vac housing. What gives?

History:
It was an eBay item, so I don't know exactly what it came out of.
It IS an odd-fire dist (three ears on the shaft pointing to oddly-spaced pick-ups).
It's got a new cap, rotor, and pick-ups.
Coil condition is unknown, but I've tried 2 different ones.
I've also tried 2 different ign moduals.

So...is it the dist or the nut trying to put it in?

 

Opps...here's the pic

 

In my mind, it should make a difference where the cap is clocked, so long as the correct tabs in the cap are being fired in the correct order (don't have the info in front of me, but it's like: short, mid, mid, long...or something). Right?

I've read and often re-read the tech articles about HEI swaps, but so far I've failed with my swap.

 

Sparky - Is this what you asked for? Sorry it's kinda blurry.

 

My rotor and the point don't exactly line up, like the rotor is at 12:00 and the point is at 12:30 (follow?). They are definately NOT one over the other.

 

So I think you have an odd fire shaft, odd fire pickups, odd fire cap but the aluminum casing I believe is an even fire casing, I had a similar issue with my HEI conversion, I bought what was sold to me as a "converted Even to odd fire HEI" but I found that the Oddfire pickups did not line up with the posts/post extensions on the inside of the cap (I have an even fire shaft, odd fire pickup ring, odd fire cap, and an oddfire housing.) To figure it out I marked the aluminum housing with a sharpie where the pickups lined up then would look into the cap as I placed it on the distibutor housing and 2 or more would not line up. I rotated the cap 90 degrees counter clockwise and found they all lined up, I then cut a new notch for the cap in the aluminum casing and it runs like a dream now.

I would bet if you put marks on the casing strait out from where the pickup ring points are located and you rotate the cap clockwise 90 degrees it will line up and work (you would have to cut a key notch for the cap in the new location)

Here is a pic of my distributor, you can see that the original key notch (which is now not used) on the housing is on the left side of the vacuum advance and the new notch I cut out for the cap to settle into is on the other side of the vacuum advance (where yours is currently located)

View attachment 23562

I figured it out with help from this HEI spotters guide using a closeup image of the casings (I have marked this one up to show the differences):
View attachment 23563

Sorry I don't have any better pictures of my distributor I didn't think about taking any until after I had finished getting it to work.

Try it out, rotate your cap 90 degrees clockwise on the housing and I bet the pickups will line up with the posts.

 

Krawl - Sounds just like the problem I'm having. I'll try what you said tonight or tomorrow about post my results. Thanks!

 

Just looking at the picture, it appears to me that the cap is right, it needs to be turned clockwise. Like was stated in another post, it looks like a even fire body.

 

So I followed Krawl's advice and sure enough, I need to rotate the cap 90 degrees clockwise and cut a new notch into the aluminum housing. Doing this will line up the contacts as shown in Merl Howell's tech article, and the rotor will point at a long tab on the cap. So...following the proper firing order I'll end up with: 1 = long, 2&3 = short, 4 = long, 5&6 = medium tabs. This is the same as shown in the Spotter's Guide tech article. BUT - Merl Howell's article shows: 1&2 = short, 3 = long, 4&5 = medium, 6 = long tabs. That cofuses me.

Also, for those keeping score; the part number stamped into my dist housing is 110552 (if that helps anybody).

 

You will be fine, you just need to make sure that when you get your engine at TDC on cylinder #1 the rotor in the distributor will need to point at any of the 3 odd posts (1,3, or 5) on the cap in that picture then follow the firing order of 1-6-5-4-3-2 in a clockwise rotation (when looking at the top outside of the cap) to hook up the rest of your ignition wires: