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Distributor Installed 180 degrees Off.

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jonny:
Hello,
While working on my 69 Notchback today, I discovered the arrangement of the spark plug leads to be 180 degrees out on the dist. cap. As best I can tell the dist. shaft is 180 degrees off. Everything seems to run well with this configuration. My questions are:
-How does this affect maintenence issues ie. valve adjustments, setting timing etc?
-Should I be removing and resetting the shaft (is it a huge deal to be 180 degrees out) and how much work is involved in this?
Thanks for your help.

BUSDADDY:
The distributor doesn't care where it's drive is positioned as long as the wires are arranged accordingly and there's enough room for the vacuum can to swing when adjusting timing, valve adjustments really should be done with regard to which wire the rotor points at anyways unless you are sure every single part on that engine is what VW put on at the factory, the notch in the body means little after 34 years. Reset it if you are losing sleep over it but the risk of dropping a drive thrust washer into the case outweighs the inconvenience of oddball wire arrangement IMO, if it runs good now put a new mark at the new #1 with a sharpie and live with that.

jonny:
Thank you,
So, when adjusting valves the rotor should be aligned to no.1 plug wire when adjusting no.1 valves? I ask this because the Muir book specifies that the rotor be aligned to the mark at the no.3 plug wire or pointing toward the left front of the vehicle for type 3's only.

BUSDADDY:

--- Quote from: jonny on April 11, 2013, 09:32:23 PM ---So, when adjusting valves the rotor should be aligned to no.1 plug wire when adjusting no.1 valves?
--- End quote ---
Yes, if it's a running engine as it's currently set up the rotor will always point to the wire (contact in the cap) leading to the cylinder that's at firing TDC and that's the same spot you adjust the valves at.

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