Inliners International Forums General Discussion Electrical And yet another posting for help installing HEI

Hey all,
I have a 1977 G20 Sportvan 292, I spent a bit of time purveying the online forums and this seems to be one of the places wherever is I will get the info I want to know that I can trust.

It is in line just not a classic sd some of your rigs but it is classic to me and so I need some help.

I didn't take accrate I measuments on replacing the dizzy but I removed the old HEI and am installing the new one.

My main question is *can the cap with the contacts and the 12v and tach be anywhere?* I thought that was how it went.
Which why I didn't take accurate measuments, more like clock postiona

Also the HEI Distributor that I got has the large cap and the one I was replacing had a small cap. I even wrote to the sellers and they said it fit however it is very tight and it hits the side cover on some positions, I also had to remove the oil check support for the time being.
I have got it to TDC no. 1, and am curious where the cap is positioned my space us more limited.
There appear to be different clock positions. If someone wants to explain it to me and why I should adopt that Iver this then by all means but the way I see it sitting in the driver's seat looking forward towards the front of vehicle is 12 o'clock. The place where the hot leads and tach is 3 o"clock.

The vacuum advance nipple is not perfect parraell the block but is going forward.

I realized to late that I needed to mark the distributor, cap and bloc sok but like I said I thought one could make any spark plugs no 1 with HEI .I believe no. 1 in the old one was sitting is the driver's seat (12 front of vehicle) at 9 or 10 o"clock.

Am I f+cked not knowing. I have looked at a lot a picture and the caps are every which way. If I have to I remove the damper/harmonic balancer but I was wondering if there was another way. I have a steering wheel puller and a bunch or different sized bolts

What position should the Distributor be in?
Do any of you guys know of a straight six van with a large cap?
As far as valve adjustments are completed but I don’t want to over tighten them, on stock about how many threads are up when tight?
Also on a side note the valve side cover gasket when cold is it okay to open them just to check how much sludge?

Should I just go back to the old distributer, it was missing a contact which I half assed replaced. It now is in two lpiwces but I think I can get the top to fit into the bottom?

Thanks you guys for any help, I am not any type of mechenic but I love learning how things work. Sorry for such a long post.

I can help sort some of this out and maybe get it to the point where the guys that know stuff can help.

The first GM HEIs came out around 1975. They had small distributer caps. The big ones came a few years later around '80-'81'. All of them fit the 194-292 series engines and with care can be fitted to the older sixes.

The engine doesn't care which hole on the cap the #1 plug wire is in as long as the rotor is pointed at it when the spark arrives. The other wires have to be place in the firing order in a clockwise direction around the cap. If you've never seen a real clock that is a right hand direction as in tightening a bolt.

There are lots of ways to determine which hole is #1. The easiest, if you have not turned the engine since you took the old distributer out is to put the old distributer back in. Make sure the tang on the shaft is in the slot that drives the oil pump. It will not seat to the block if the tang and slot do not alined. At this point you can be in the right place or 180 degrees out. (1/2 turn) If you did not remove the plug wires they may help you to see if this is right or if you need to pull it and turn it 1/2 turn. If you can find where only one of wires fits you can see if the rest will fit our to the shape and length of the wires. Mark it and install the new distributer and use your marks to run the wires.

If you have removed the wires or turned the engine it is a bit more work but not bad. Go ahead and stick the new Distributer in. Pull #1 spark plug and turn the engine until #1 piston is coming up on a compression stroke. It will be blowing pressure out of the hole because both valves will be closed. Whichever distributer post the rotor is pointing at will be #1. Wire from there and time as necessary. Good luck.

Beater of the Pack has given good advice. It doesn't matter how the distributor is oriented as long as the rotor is lined up with the #1 spark plug wire when the #1 cylinder is at top dead center.

I would orient the distributor so that the distributor is not touching the block and you have enough clearance to rotate the distributor to correctly time the engine.

I'm not really familiar with older small cap HEI setups. Having just checked Rock Auto for ignition parts, it looks like the 1977 292 uses a large cap distributor body but the cap doesn't have an integral coil. If this is the case, it would seem that you might also have some minor wiring changes to do if you don't use the original coil.

the integral coil/ external coil is the same/similar distributor. rotor and cap will swap from each other.