Motorcraft Distributor

[dimension4]

How many gear teeth are supposed to be on my dist., I have a 304 v8? Is it possible to put it in wrong even if I line up the lines on cyl 1-rotor and tdc compression stroke harmonic balancer? What kind of signal should that little coil put out?

[73hornut]

Could be 180 out.

[dimension4]

What's a good way to find out if it's 180 out?

[jeepsr4ever]

you can take it out and rotate it 180 degrees and drop it back in...might fire then and you can set your timing accordingly after that. 13 teeth on the gears

[73hornut]

If it's 180 out, it will backfire real loud. If it is, you can move your plug wires around on the cap.

[Goose]

Just my humble opinion but if it is 180 out it is far better to pull it and rotate the dizzy 180 rather than move the wires.. cause if you happen to screw up the firing order it will often backfire just as though it is 180 out again and you begin chasing another problem.. remember 18436572 is not just a number..it is the answer to the secret question. (and no it is not Jennifer lopez's phone number)

[dimension4]

Yeah I would think if it was 180 out it would backfire more often and not run well throughout the power range, I have decent power above 22xx rpm. My buddy is in school for automotive tech, his teacher thinks it's the distributor. I got a new one, I'll keep you updated once I install it. There's not really a lot that it could be besides dizzy, ignition mod. (have already a spare, no luck), or vac. leak. I checked vac. leak with the starting fluid trick, but couldn't find anything significant. BTW I have already tried the new cap idea, but it's still a stock cap. I read you can use one off a '77 ford 460. Is that true?