#1 ?

As you can see, I did the ridiculous. Which is the #1 post on this. ‘75 304

 

Pretty new wires though.

Afraid it is impossible to determine for sure by looking at your picture, because the distributor can be, and often is moved from where it originally started out.

IF you are a very lucky person it may be close to the way it started out. If so the below diagram might get you "started". The distributor on theses are a clockwise rotation. Try running number one wire to the #1 terminal in the diagram and the others going in clockwise direction around the cap. If it doesn't run right, shift the wires one terminal to either side.




If that don't get it you can determine it by bringing the number one piston to TDC on COMPRESSION stroke, and then looking to see which terminal the rotor is pointing at.

 

Well, ........ my distributor is oriented differently than yours. ...... My #1 is marked with silver

 

And, oddly enough, I got it. I read if you align the timing mark with TDC, the rotor will be on #1. It was 180 degrees out from everything I saw. Sigh, I’m too old for this. Thanks for all your input, it sent me in the right direction

 

TDC can either be on the compression stroke or exhaust stroke. So if you put the engine on TDC the rotor is either pointing at #1 or it pointing 180 away from #1.

 

I guess i got lucky then. I dont imagine it would run if i was 180 out ?

 

With my very limited knowledge, I don’t see how the engine could run unless it was wired correctly, meaning if it wasn’t firing when it was supposed to, I would know it, yes? How many times per cycle are the timing marks aligned ?

 

You got lucky

 

I forgot to mention that with the marks aligned I noted the location of the rotor and assumed this was when #1 was supposed to fire. Did I just learn something?

 

I leave the spark in but loose so you can hear the compression stroke and go from there.

 

If it were 180 degrees off it would belch flame out of the carburetor and exhaust. If it were one terminal off it might try to run but would still backfire.

As "ColoJeepGuy" mentioned the timing marks are aligned twice for each cycle once on compression stroke, again on exhaust stroke. This occurs for every cylinder, so with an 8 cylinder engine the timing marks are aligned 16 times each time the distributor makes a full rotation. This is why you can't just line up the marks and put number one on the terminal the rotor is pointed at.

Why I said you got lucky.

If you are going to work on these vehicles you need to do some study on how a four cycle engine works, and you need to obtain a real service manual.

 

Ok, that helps as much as I can understand. I do wonder this, though… all of the pictures on the net show #1 on the distributor to be roughly facing forward-ish, yet mine is more pointed toward the engine. Again, with my limited knowledge, I don’t understand how this could be. A lot of my confusion came from that. Suffice it to say, it is running better than ever now

 

Most of us didn't know what we were doing either when we first started working on old cars. I started working on cars when I was 10 years old, which was 57 years ago. There was no internet, but my dad had a shelf full of "Motors" manuals, and I could ride my bike to the public library if I needed to know something not covered in the manuals he had. I also learned by doing. I can take something mechanical apart and figure out how it works, and how to fix it.

Pictures on the net don't mean much, go back and read my first response to this thread, and obtain a factory service manual.

 

As far as the FSM, this is the one recommended by a well known person on this forum. Do you have a suggestion? I do want/need the best. I’m fairly intelligent, but do lack knowledge of engines and how they work. Also, at 69, well… you know the old dog and new tricks thing

 

Its okay to be a late bloomer, you probably know more about engines than I did when I started working on cars.

All four stroke piston engines work basically the same whether a one cylinder Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine or a great big V12.

Each piston has four strokes.

1) Intake Stroke. Piston goes down with intake valve open and draws in the fuel mixture.
2) Compression Stroke. Piston goes up, both valves closed and compresses the fuel mixture until it reaches a few degrees before TDC and the compressed fuel is ignited by the ignition system. See note below.
3) Power Stroke. Piston is forced down by combustion pressure both valves still closed.
4) Exhaust Stroke. Piston goes up, exhaust valve opens and burnt fuel gases (exhaust) are forced into the exhaust manifold.

The same four strokes occur for each cylinder in firing order.

There are various ignition systems. Modern vehicles have computer controlled ignitions most without a distributor, but our old Jeeps, like most other vehicles of the era, have a mechanically controlled distributor that must be timed so that the spark occurs at a precise moment at the end of the Compression Stroke, usually a few degrees before TDC.
The distributor is driven by a gear on the camshaft turning a gear on the distributor. On earlier Jeep engines such as the F-134 and L-134 the gear that drives the distributor is on the oil pump, and the distributor shaft is keyed to the pump with an offset tab that fits into the oil pump shaft. This makes it unlikely to have the distributor installed 180 degrees off. The V8 in your jeep has the distributor drive gear on the distributor shaft and if the distributor is ever removed from the vehicle and not re-installed in exactly the same position it can be any number of teeth off. That is why the number one terminal on your distributor does not match the pictures you have been looking at.

You don't say which manual was recommended, but as long as it is a Factory Service Manual you will have what you need.

The Chilton and Hanes manuals they typically sell in auto part stores are not very good, better than nothing I suppose, but I had a pile of those which had came with Jeeps I had bought and I gave them all away.

 

ebay has a few digital reproduction copies of the FSM out there and they are OK. I have one of those, then I printed out the pages, poked holes in them and put in a 3 ring binder (I killed at least one tree because I can make notes, and refer back later). Same digital copy, as it is a PDF, I can make digital notes also, but then I have to figure out how to sync between my phone and my laptop. Paper transports easily around the house...

I was dredging CL one day and I found a porch-pickup FSM and Parts manual for a crazy good deal, I couldn't drive across town safely and fast enough...

I see FSM and Parts manuals on Ebay from time to time, they can get spendy. Same on FB Market and CL.

There also occasionally pops up a Tech Service Manual, like this for an intermediate:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255696858550

this is an example of the early(to '71) FSM on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/304924279482

 

Go here and download your FSM. There are a bunch of freebies that you should check out.
Why not it's free

https://oljeep.com/edge_parts_man.html