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need help - firing order

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Post by Six Deuce Sun May 28, 2017 8:58 pm

hey summer is here and its time to ride.
last week i bought in a flea market a 1961 specification sheet for our buicks.
it has all the tune up and ajustments specs related to the 215.
anyway to make a long story short, the firing order on the sheet is identical to
mine, but the wires arrive on others 'tips' on the distributor cap.
i have cylinder wire 2 just LEFT OF THE FRONT SCREW on the dist cap.
the specs paper diagram shows that i should have wire 4 at the same position.
i spoke with an old timer mechanic and he told me that wire 7 goes there........

WHO IS RIGHT ???
Six Deuce
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Post by Six Deuce Sun May 28, 2017 10:02 pm

quick update:
i tried the firing order on buick specs sheet and the car did not even start.
it even backfired through the carb.....so i replaced the wires like they used to.....
cant understand yet...
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Post by regal81455 Sun May 28, 2017 10:32 pm

put them back where they were if it was running ok -- kinda hard to explain so hopefully this is the easy answer -- it doesn't matter which post is #1 on the cap/dizzy as long as long as once a #1 is selected the rest of the order follows the spec'd order -- selection of the #1 cylinder happens when you 1st set the distrubutor -- once the dizzy is set #1 is now found by bring #1 cylinder to TDC on compression stroke and then identifying which post the rotor is pointing too -- this would be #1 -- now all you have to do is make sure the wires go to the matching cylinders and in the correct sequence on the engine -- does that make sense?

This is considered the "clocking".  The #1 cylinder can be on any of the eight posts and then the next just follows the sequence and so forth.

If you want to have them exactly according to your firing order you would need to bring the #1 cylinder to TDC on the compression stroke, pull the cap so you can identify which post the rotor is pointing to and if necessary pull the dizzy and reset it so the rotor points to the correct post per the spec sheet --does that make sense?

If you're still having trouble understanding lmk and I'll attempt to explain another way.
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Post by Six Deuce Mon May 29, 2017 6:19 pm

i knew that order sequence is important, and im correct with this.
but i did not know that you could start on any dist. post whichever was as tdc when installing the cap.
if i want it like the original way, can i turn the engine by hand until i have the rotor pointing the specific cylinder at tdc ???

also, i dont know if its related, but i noticed in the past few days the engine is harder to start than the previoys years..........even when hot. even had to put fuel in carb the other day.......
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Post by Six Deuce Mon May 29, 2017 6:21 pm

by the way, thanks for the quick reply regal 81455
i appreciate.
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Post by regal81455 Tue May 30, 2017 7:39 am

Let's say hypothetically you just completed a rebuild and you're getting ready to drop in your dizzy for the 1st time.

Normally you would rotate the engine over by hand till you find TDC on the compression stroke on the #1 cylinder ( in this case the 1st cylinder on the drivers side nearest the radiator ). Once this is completed you would drop in your dizzy. This is where you have a chance to make some decisions.

You could...

A -- choose to put the dizzy in and have the rotor facing the correct cap post per the tuning sheet / service manual

B -- choose to put the dizzy in and have the rotor facing a post of your choosing

C -- drop it in and let the rotor fall to whatever post it lands on

Once you've done A, B, or C then you start running your spark plug wires according to the firing order in the correct rotation ( in this case CCW ). The only thing that really matters is that whatever post the rotor is facing at this moment is considered cylinder #1 and then the order goes from there.

Now that the you've already go a dizzy installed you either have one of two options

1. Run with how it is installed -- bring #1 to TDC on compression stroke and run your wires accordingly OR

2. Pull your dizzy and clock per the above options and then run your wires.

Hope that helps.
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Post by regal81455 Tue May 30, 2017 7:44 am

As to your second problem -- have you messed with the dizzy at all ( in another words loosened the hold down and advanced/retarded the timing at all?

Normally hard starts ( particularly hard hot starts ) are due to over-advanced timing at initial timing but it could be vapor lock, low fuel pressure, rich idle mixture or a hand full of other issues ( coil could be crapping out on you, etc... )

The items listed above are just some of the more common culprits -- could be any number or combination of things.
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