VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 28 national distributor shaft timing

this is a continuation of my distributor woes

one of my last posts discussed the fact that i had the distributor rotate from a mis aligned rotor

I replaced the rotor cap and spring clip to hold the distributor cap down ( the spring was lost when the distributor cap twisted)
thanks to Rustaholic and his kindness , he sent me a replacement

i could not get the truck started and noted that the distributor shaft no longer rotated, and no spark to the cylinders

I removed the distributor shaft thinking I had some broken gear or worse

every thing is in good shape I hope to replace the shaft and insert it correctly

my hunch that it had twisted out of the gear and pin and was not engaged

now, I find top dead center and place the distributor?
the rotor should be pointing to the #1 cylinder?

any advice would be welcomed

Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the kind words. Helping each other is what we do here. ;-)

To find top dead center (TDC) for cylinder one, take the rocker cover off and the spark plugs out. Then, rotate the engine (with a hand crank) and watch the valves for cylinder one. You'll see:

1. The intake valve open (second valve from the front). This is the intake stroke of the four-cycle process.

2. When the intake valve closes (and you'll see the exhaust valve stay closed), the engine is now entering the compression stroke.

3. Place a wood dowel in cylinder one's spark plug hole. Gently continue to turn the hand crank and the dowel will lift as the piston comes up. When the piston reaches the top, that is TDC. ;-)

If the flywheel is put on correctly, there should be a U|C (upper center) mark showing in the inspection opening that is on the flywheel housing. Look for this opening behind the hot air tube that goes from the heater manifold to the carb. The inspection opening is near the heater manifold.

Back in 2017, I rebuilt Lurch's engine and documented it on this website. Here's the post where I reinstalled the distributor: 1928 engine rebuild - distributor installation

If you want to read about the whole adventure, start here: Resurrectig a 1928 Four Banger

Enjoy! Dean