Hi
I have the 327/365 in my car.
i'm not very knowlegable on distributors and engine repairs so please excuse me if this post seems a bit disjointed or confusing but it's the best I can explain it.
When I bought the car a few months ago I was told the distributor needed to be recurved. I took it to my mechanic - he is the only one who touches my car so far and came highly recommended from a friend who also has a '65.
After replacing the points and trying to recurve and redo the timing my mechanic said he couldn't get the timing set properly because the bushings were worn. As I understand it that means as the timing was changing constantly because of the movement of the shaft because of the worn bushings?
Anyway, since I had the cataloges from the Vette suppliers we went through the Long Island Corvette cat and bought the following:
new shaft (the hi-perf one for the 365hp motor)
springs and weights
baseplate and wire
vacume advance
tach driven gear
lower gear and lower gear pin
upper shaft bushing and lower shaft bushing
Two days ago he rebuilt the distributor with the new parts. Again he said he can't get the timing set correctly. On the first try after setting the dwell (with some meter) and than setting the timing with the timing light we drove the car and it wouldn't get out of it's own way and it sounded really bad. He immediatelly said it seemed as though something on the front of the engine "slipped" (maybe a harmonic balancer - I'm not really sure or can't remember what he said exactly) but that he could probably get the timing set by ear and by driving the car.
After almost another 2 hours of playing with it it's SLIGHTLY better than before we started with all the new parts but barely. Previously, the car would rev to 6000rpm than the engine just wouldn't go any further. Now it will go to about 6300rpm but still no further. Also, low end torgue is not what I think it really should be.
I really don't rev the engine up very hight when i'm driving it but I DO want everything to be right and everything set correctly regardless.
Now he tells me we need to get a new "vibration dampener" and that will allow him to properly get the timing set correctly.
Does this sound correct???
The first time I took the car to him was for the distributor recurve (and a few other things). That was $300 and I still left without proper timing. Than I got the parts which cost me over $200 from LICS and than the labor charge again the other day of $270. I've already spent almost $800 and it's still not right and calling around locally this "vibration dampener" runs about $70 and it will be about 1.5 hours labor to install for another approx $112.50.
Am I wasting my time (and more importantly my money!)? What's going on here?
Please Help!
Barry
I have the 327/365 in my car.
i'm not very knowlegable on distributors and engine repairs so please excuse me if this post seems a bit disjointed or confusing but it's the best I can explain it.
When I bought the car a few months ago I was told the distributor needed to be recurved. I took it to my mechanic - he is the only one who touches my car so far and came highly recommended from a friend who also has a '65.
After replacing the points and trying to recurve and redo the timing my mechanic said he couldn't get the timing set properly because the bushings were worn. As I understand it that means as the timing was changing constantly because of the movement of the shaft because of the worn bushings?
Anyway, since I had the cataloges from the Vette suppliers we went through the Long Island Corvette cat and bought the following:
new shaft (the hi-perf one for the 365hp motor)
springs and weights
baseplate and wire
vacume advance
tach driven gear
lower gear and lower gear pin
upper shaft bushing and lower shaft bushing
Two days ago he rebuilt the distributor with the new parts. Again he said he can't get the timing set correctly. On the first try after setting the dwell (with some meter) and than setting the timing with the timing light we drove the car and it wouldn't get out of it's own way and it sounded really bad. He immediatelly said it seemed as though something on the front of the engine "slipped" (maybe a harmonic balancer - I'm not really sure or can't remember what he said exactly) but that he could probably get the timing set by ear and by driving the car.
After almost another 2 hours of playing with it it's SLIGHTLY better than before we started with all the new parts but barely. Previously, the car would rev to 6000rpm than the engine just wouldn't go any further. Now it will go to about 6300rpm but still no further. Also, low end torgue is not what I think it really should be.
I really don't rev the engine up very hight when i'm driving it but I DO want everything to be right and everything set correctly regardless.
Now he tells me we need to get a new "vibration dampener" and that will allow him to properly get the timing set correctly.
Does this sound correct???
The first time I took the car to him was for the distributor recurve (and a few other things). That was $300 and I still left without proper timing. Than I got the parts which cost me over $200 from LICS and than the labor charge again the other day of $270. I've already spent almost $800 and it's still not right and calling around locally this "vibration dampener" runs about $70 and it will be about 1.5 hours labor to install for another approx $112.50.
Am I wasting my time (and more importantly my money!)? What's going on here?
Please Help!
Barry