a am motor challenged

i have a distributor and coil that i want to install in my 83 firebird with a 305. its an accel hei dist with an accel coil also. but i am not real good with this stuff and want to know how to install it. does anyone have any recommended sites that can help or any advice for someone who is internal combustion challenged dont want to pay someone to install it. kinda defeats the purpose of learnin how to do it. thanks

chris

The easiest way to do it is to turn the crankshaft until the engine is at top dead center. Take the cap off, but leave the plug wires on. Just set it aside. Remove the little three-wire harness from the cap. Now take note of where the rotor is pointing. If you want, lay a screwdriver across it and mark the firewall, an intake bolt, a valve cover, whatever. Just have a vague reference of where its pointing. Then do the same thing with the nipple of the vacuum canister. This one is a bit more important to get close.

Now, just remove the old and put in the new. you'll notice that the old one will turn the rotor as it comes up. Take note of that because when you put the new one in, you have to start it with the rotor a little counter clockwise of where you want it to end up. You'll also notice that if you get it on the "wrong" tooth it won't seat the whole way down. The bottom of the distributor gear meets up with the oil pump drive.

Once its in, lightly tighten the hold-down bolt so you can still turn it by hand. Fire it up and check the timing. Adjust as necessary and then tighten down the hold-down bolt.

You will also have to do some adjustments. Take the cap and rotor off the Accel and note the color of the advance springs. Then go to Accel's website and see what RPM they correspond to. You'll also have to read up on how to properly set the adjustable vacuum canister.

HEI ignitions are very forgiving. Setting it up this way will make sure you get close, but the truth is, you can put it in any way you want it and just line up the rotor with the right post to get it close and time it from there. Putting it in the same spot just makes it easy to hook up wiring and vacuum lines, but don't fret if you don't get it exact. You can spin that housing 360 degrees to get your correct timing.

In reply to curtis73:

thanks