Thread: SBC help Thanks in advance, it has some length to it but the detail is pertinent

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

I'd guess that you have the distributor a tooth or two off when it was re-installed.

Dave, I don't think that's very likely. Forgive my memory for not being what it once was, but I seem to recall that the HEI gear has an oddball number of teeth on it, something like 13 maybe? That may not be right, but it's a low number. The bottom end turns through two revolutions while the distributor goes around once. So you have 720º of crankshaft rotation for every 360º of distributor rotation. With so few teeth (can someone either correct me on that number or check it...) on the distributor, it turns something like 55º+ for each tooth. If he was out one or two teeth I don't think he could get it to fire unless he twisted the distributor an awful long way from where it's supposed to be...no?