Rough running engine- (Symptoms) It's difficult to get it to run at 650 rpm, it's having a hard time at less than about 900rpm. At that idle speed, and the vac line disconnected and plugged, the timing has to be about 30 btc for it to run. I've checked tdc to the rotor/cap position, and it's lining up on #1. I rebuilt the car myself, and only cleaned up the distributor ( beside putting in the normal consumable parts). Any suggestions on things to check, or is it best, with a car that sat for 20 years, to get the distributor professionally rebuilt, and get the car rebuilt ( or get the edelbrock "carter" replacement)? The dwell is 36. when driving, the car drives a little eratic. When stopping with the car in D, the car wants to die ( so I slip it into N for the stop). I've only taken the carb apart, cleaned it out with carb cleaner, and re-assembled with a new kit. plugs and wires are new. The valves were adjusted cold at the machine shop - I haven't yet checked them. I've been told by a few to do it cold - what's the best way to turn the engine from cylinder to cylinder? Getting to the 1 1/2" bolt in the front, and prying the tabs out of the way, would probably mean removing the radiator. A strap wrench on the vibration dampner or pulley are a possibility. How do people normally do it? or does everyone just make a mess and adjust the valves hot? Anyway, tonight I took the distributor apart, checked the weights - the shaft bushings looked good, but the cam lobes and rectangular holes didn't - I had a spare distributor ( a single point one that was in the car originally) with a good cam plate ( but bad weights). the cam plate appeared to be the same, so I swapped them. ( thanks, Stan). I lubed up the breaker plate - it really needed it ( thanks, Bob), but I didn't take it all the way apart - I could feel the difference in the rotation regardless. I got the distributor back in just at 9pm, so I only ran the car for a few minutes, and only in the garage. My wife could tell from upstairs that it sounded better, but it was too late to drive it around. The idle is still inconsistent ( going fine, starting to die, recovering), and the timing is now on the scale. I'm going to check for vac leaks, and take the carb apart, tomorrow night after a quick spin around the block. The engine starts fine when the car is cold, but a little more slugishly when warm ----------- -------------- Jeff, when you cleaned up the distributor, did you check to see of the weights were worn where they pivot on the pins, were the shaft bushings worn? Were the rectangular holes in the flat plate underneath the cam badly worn? If the answer to any of these is Yes, that could be the problem and indicates the need for a distributor rebuild.. Does the vacuum advance hoold a vacuum? Did you replace the ignition wires? If you did not, do it. that could be the problem. Stan Gundry ------ First a couple of questions. Have you checked the dwell with a meter? What do you feel when you're driving the car? Is it just the idle that's bad or does it drive roughly also? Was the carb "boiled out" when it was rebuilt? Are the plugs as fresh as the motor? Were the valves adjusted cold or hot? There are so many things. Don't let that 30 advance throw you right away, dwell that's off of the fact that you have to crank it up to 950 to get it to idle could be causing the centrifugal advance to kick in. My R2 has 2!! timing lines on the balancer the are a good 20 degrees apart, I'm still not sure if I was timing off the right one, but my heads are off and I'll finally be able to tell which is the right one. Does the engine labor to start like the battery was weak? If not you static timing may not be 30 degrees. erizzolo@gateway.net Aug 2001 -------- As far as mixture screw adjustment, you may be running the mixture too lean and that can cause a miss at idle. Until the 70's if a car needed to run rich to idle smoothly the factory set it rich. There will come a point, on an engine that does not have a problem, where leaning the mixture at idle will cause the car to stall. Perfectly normal. If you can screw them in all the way and still run you're probably leaking gas into the engine and if you can screw them out real far you probably have a vaccuum leak.