take off the cap & check that the rotor is retracted all the way (it should be from the springs unless the slots/pins are gummed up). loosen the holddown clamp & turn the dist housing slightly a bit till the magnet is dead even with the closest reluctor tooth. tighten the clamp.
Make a magic marker mark on the side of the dist housing straight down vertical/plumb from the rotor tip clocking. replace the cap & make another magic marker mark on the dist housing side inline with the "bulge" of the particular cap terminal where the rotor is located at which will be pretty close to your first mark. You want the rotor at rest to be pretty much clocked right at the cap terminal bulge center & the can will shift RP CCW on a SB so ideally you want the rotor to be a bit CW from dead centered. edge to edge in a vertical plumb CL is good. You do have some leeway there cuz the cap terminal is .214" wide and the rotor terminal is .244" and the can shifts the rotor .023" around its travel arc for every degree stamped on the can. also check the rotor tip to cap terminal clearance, ideal is to reduce it to .015" by drilling out the rivet & makeing your own blade. On OE dists, the reluctor gap opens up as the can adds advance so if your dist does not then that is a bennie. Are you sure yours is staying at the same .008"?
Yes I'm positive, before installing this firecore distributor I removed the cap and
Checked all 8 reluctor blades to pick up coil post clearneces with a brass feeler gauge, all of them were at .008.
I then hooked up my brand new mity vac hand pump to the vacuum advance and deployed the vacuum advance untill the arm was fully pulled out and I held it there with the mity vac while I went around each tooth on the reluctor and again they were all at .008.
The rotor that came with this firecore distributor already has a longer blade then the factory rotor blade.
I was thinking about buying a cheap distributor cap and drilling a hole
In it by the number 1 plug tower and then hooking my timing light up to it and watching it at 2500 with the vacuum advance plugged in and then I can get an idea of how far off the phasing is.
Then I suppose I could ether buy the reluctor that Rick ehnberg sells that has multiple key ways cut into it for rotor phasing, or I can buy another cap and modify a new slot on the base of it to put it on the distributor.
Or I could send it back to firecore and make it their problem to fix it cause it's still under its warranty.
