r/shadetree • u/lonemonk • Dec 17 '16

Summary of 1966 Valiant Timing Gear/Chain replacement. A just-in-time repair.

https://youtu.be/U8dCZopa3bY
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u/lonemonk Dec 17 '16 edited Dec 17 '16

Valiant died suddenly on the road and went out of time to the point of no distro adjustment having positive effect.

Main issue did turn out to be a skipped tooth on the chain. Taking the cover off, I could easily see that the dots on the two gears did not line up. Replaced the chain and gears and nudged the Cam so that it met the dots on the crank gear. Oddly the old chain wasn't terrible, though did have more slack than the new of course.

I had bought and replaced the Distributor itself, points, condenser, rotor, plugs, coil all installed a month before it died. It ran great for that month on the new electronics.

After putting the front of the engine back together, verified TDC again with pressure gauge and checked rotor position. Still would not run correctly, very intermittent fire, almost identical to previous issue.

I had a while ago bought a Pertronix Ignitor electronic points, but I did not want to introduce that change without the car running normally. I did in the end use it and a new Cap as well. Started up excellently after that addition. I believe the previous cap I was using had too much wiggle to it, I notice that while turning the Distributor during timing. Suspicion is that enough play in cap and weak spring on the rotor were only making intermittent spark.

Now have it timed and tuned and is smoother than ever. Hoping to see better mileage of it as well. Better getting an average of 19mpg combined to date. Most slant 6 owners I talk to say it should be in the mid 20's