i have a 57 y-block 312. here is the story. the car was running pretty well. when doing some clean up work i noticed that the plug wires were wrong (everything off by one spot to the right). so i fixed the wires..checked the points,cap,rotor and re-timed the car with a 6 degree advance. and now the damn thing runs like a turd and i can not get the secondary to kick in (vacuum). so my question what the heck am i missing? why would this cause the secondary not to work? should i put the wires back how they were and see what happens?? any advise would be awesome!!!!
When you moved the wires, did you also move the distributor housing or rotor 45 degrees, to make up for it?
ummm not sure. when i tuned it i made sure the piston was up in the number 1 cyc. and then rotated the rotor so it was pointing at the number 1 wire .... so yeah it should be right on!
you might want to double check that you got all the wires in the right order, also make sure you disconnect the vacuum advance before checking the timing.
thank you...i did time it with the advance hooked up.... would that make a huge difference?? sorry if that's a dumb question...
i dont fully inderstand the question? the #1 cylinder is the one closest to the front on the pas. side and i dont have the order here with me but it is out of a book (chilton) ummm i wanna say 15486372.... i think?? going counter clockwise standing on the pas.side i have it wired... clip (on dis) 3 7 2 1 clip on dis 5 4 8 6 still can not get secondary to kick in... changed the diaphram on the secondary.. have good vacuum from the manifold just wont work. the car is running pretty well now...just no secondary.
What conditions are you trying to get the secondary to open? It should only open when you're running the engine under load, and higher rpm.
Cylinder #1 is on the passenger's side. You said it right the first time--- make sure you have it hooked up that way too.
usually there are a couple things that keep it from opening, first make sure it's getting full throttle opening at the carb when you push the gas pedal down. Might need a helper for this. Check to see if there's a choke interlock. See if the vacuum diaphram is working, if you take the whole assembly off, you should be able to push the rod up, put your finger over the vacuum hole, and it should stay retracted.
had the diaphram off today... it is working fine.. i will check the other things thank you so much for your help
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