Chevy Astro ADJUSTABLE DISTRIBUTOR How To, HUGE IMPROVEMENT!

[@williamwright7262]

I thought I was the only one who wanted to see inside the cap when it was running. Too cool.

[@ADDvanced]

Why don't they make clear caps?!?! :P

[@hughblack3456]

I think the distributor gear is off a tooth from meshing properly with the cam. Bring the engine to TDC firing position and see if your rotor is pointing to the #1 cylinder's electrode in the cap. Check to see If the harmonic damper TDC mark coincides with the #1 piston's position. Sometimes the outer damper ring spins with age throwing the TDC mark off. If you're confident that you really have the engine at TDC and the rotor still isn't aligned properly with the cap's electrode, the distributor gear is off a tooth. It's often a pain to lower the distributor in the correct position and also align the tab on the end of the distributor shaft where it engages with the oil pump. You may have to rotate the pump shaft slightly with a long screwdriver so that you get the gear and the pump drive meshing correctly as you drop in the distributor. Hope this helps. Good luck!

[@ADDvanced]

Check my previous videos for distributor replacement. You can see it’s the same angle

[@hughblack3456]

I went back to your video and you're correct it IS at the same angle as when you started but what's the chance the distributor had been installed incorrectly since you've owned it. Check to make sure #1 piston is at TDC and that the rotor is aligned properly with electrode in the distributor cap,

[@kevindashner6521]

Went the same route you did, but ultimately just took it to a shop that had a GM scanner and they adjusted the timing with the scanner. That is the correct way to adjust the timing after swapping the distributor. Cost me fifty bucks and about a half hour.

[@Hanginwithherky]

As soon as I get a weather winds I going to check this. Great video

[@ADDvanced]

Please do! I hope it helps, and I’ll put out another video if I have to do my cap and rotor again shortly, but hopefully not. 🤞

[@jeppenordfosskristensen7319]

Top tip👌🏻😎🏁

[@kencraig6526]

ok 45 yrs of working on cars let me help your thinking. with a scan tool with data at idle look for retard data cam retard, should be 0 at idle, give it a rev and idle read the data. no more than 3 degrees pos or negative. move the dist and restart the engine and test it again. if you cant get a stable 0 within 3 degrees cam gear or timing chain or dist drive gear is the cause. low compression and poor idle can affect it slightly. that is how you by the book set it, if you have any questions ask me. x66 is a great cleaner for injectors but in calif i cant get it if you can use it the injectors are the worst problem from day one on these gm v6 and v8

[@stephensoles3773]

From my old days tuning up small block chevys I recall that it is possible to install the distributor gear on 180 degrees out. What happens then is your timing(as you adjust it,(or in this case it is fixed) will be off by a few degrees. I suspect these distributors are the same. Just an idea,since the unit has been replaced. There is NO way this timing (rotor to terminal)should be that far off, the fixed position of the distributor should give maximum performance. The slotted holddown is a good workaround though.

[@ADDvanced]

Yes some of the aftermarket distributors have the gear installed 180 off like you said. That said I’ve seen this pattern of wear inside the caps since before I replaced the distributor. The theory is the timing chain has some stretch/wear which puts the cam slightly behind. Not sure exactly.

[@MKEL_1327]

Very common problem with astros ..... it is theorized that this problem occurs from slightly stretched timing chain and at high revs the computor gets out of sinc and you can get p300 codes... I did this mod a bunch of years ago and it has worked great. my van runs perfect although I did not do the hole in the cap part. Just ran it a bunch with the doghouse open, tweaking it until I was happy with it... Good video Rod

[@ADDvanced]

Yeah I thought I mentioned that but not sure (timing chain). Another possibility is the gear on my new distributor being 180 off; I’ve read of people flipping it for better alignment but that wouldn’t explain my stock distributor doing the same thing.

[@DavidHild-w4z]

cool, wanted to see this,,,, esp. that window. I havent had a chanceto get into checking out my dizzy yet. At 100k, , new to me van,,probably has never been tuned up,,,, I suspect Mine is doing something wierd as a sometimes get a miss/crossfire feeling,,, no codes, just does on this slight hill on the 101.

[@ADDvanced]

Have you done a cap and rotor yet?

[@DavidHild-w4z]

no, Ive done next to nothing to the Astro, I replaced heater core, ... thats it. I bought a bunch of Jouneys stuff but its in storage. I prematuely had to move full time into it and have another vehicle to get around. Things keep getting put on back burner due to health and bad weather. I know I need to get it going for eventual move out of CA and towing 2nd car. @@ADDvanced

[@ADDvanced]

Yeah, get out of there dude. Cali would be great if you were a multi millionaire, but if not you will be a serf and renting forever.

[@weijia8088]

Good to know. I don't hat issue here in the southwest but wonder if I'll have it when traveling northeast.

[@ADDvanced]

Hopefully not.

[@theoldstyle7453]

Looks like you turned the distributor counter clockwise, right? I think I need to do this adjustment too.

[@pat2843]

This will work on any Vortec V6 or V8 GM engine. What does your CMP/CKP read the way the distributor is set now?

[@ADDvanced]

No idea my scanner is not that fancy but I’ll try to borrow one.

[@stevem8602]

Anytime on the sleek craft coming up?

[@charger7022]

I remember 4 wheeling with 4.3 blazer and water was always an issue we were constantly popping caps and spraying with wd40 to get em running again

[@ADDvanced]

Scraping the corrosion first?

[@cdoublejj]

i always thought chewing through caps/rotors was slop in the dizzy shaft bushings. i put all new ignition system sans coil on mine when doing the LIM gasket. all metal car quest premium dizzy. another guy on the astro safari forums says he has 40k miles on his CQ premium. i will also state i was not able to stab my dizzy in correctly. a multi decade mechanic who have built plenty of SBC struggled to get it to go in on the correct tooth alignment. I wonder if the machine the slots for the rotor alignment incorrectly on the dizzy shaft. #allpartsmadeinchina

[@tonysanislo4977]

When I got a new distributor the gear was put on 180 out, which made it half a tooth off. Pulled the pin out, turned the gear and repinned it. Tada, fixed my timing issue.

[@robertschmitz2]

Achieved the same result but flipping the worm gear on the distributor.

[@ADDvanced]

I read about that, but wasn't sure how it would shorten the spark.

[@theoldstyle7453]

How did you take off the dist. hold down clamp? I read that they are pressed on.

[@ADDvanced]

They aren’t.

[@cdoublejj]

the only catch is if the fresh cap isn't aligned EXACTLY like the old one but, for the length of the damn spark it might not matter.

[@ADDvanced]

As far as I can figure, the length of the spark is all that matters. I'm at 6k miles through a rainy spring, without any issues, the van still runs without stumbles. I think I solved it, but I'll update at some point.

[@noeldrach7956]

Brilliant.

[@ADDvanced]

We'll see

[@noflo8139]

Any updates? I think I’m having the same probably

[@ADDvanced]

Still working fine at 4500 miles

[@noflo8139]

@@ADDvanced so before I was getting this shuttering and stumbling when driving at Crusieing speeds. Ended up doing the same thing here in the video adjusting the distributor. Drives much better got the spark to line up correct. Still shutters but not as much. Can you relate at all?

[@fernandodominguez3464]

Amazing buddy ✅

[@ADDvanced]

Thank you! Cheers 🍻

[@melonboi186]

Get back to work on the 10hp mercury on the 8 foot hydroplane

[@TimothyMortrud-wf8sk]

I have a 94 Astro 4.3 TBI EXT AWD 3 DOOR. I think you need to never change any lubricating oils until you gunk up to a 4.0. Less displacement, less fuel needed to fill up the cylinders, obviously less juice needed to fire it off. Fasten a lever onto that distributor so you can retard yourself with the effectiveness of a custom stick position shifter. Get rid of the dog house permanently to save hours of your life. You know the real reason it is named a dog house right? Then stick your finger in that hole you made in the distributor cap periodically to get a good feel for the shocking truth every good mechanic knows that is worth the crispy smell of his or her frazzled hair dos or don'ts that all Astros are inherently a unending pain in the nose picking pinky right down to the rump of the ass. Dog house, dog is chained to dog house, dog spends life in and out of house day after day after day. U B dog, house will always B Ur friend. LMAO! You know what TBI really means right? Oh yeah, the more decals they slap on the outside the more time you will spend on the inside of your mobile DOGHOUSE. Do yourself a favor, install a real doggy door in the rear end hatch, fasten the dog chain to the transmission destroying ball on the trailer hitch and let Spike have his way with your archenemy. PS: Leave your Astro to you 2nd archenemy in your last will and testimony. They will love you for it! I think I have been MK Astroed by the CIA. I just can't stop fixing it. The way I see it I will always have somewhere to get out of the weather when they take my mobile home away from me. I hope I made someone smile and maybe got a chuckle today. Keep on wrenching dudes and dudettes! God Bless America. America give God thanks and praise for All His Blessings.

[@mrcengr]

.....very interesting, but let me say I've only had to replace ONE rotor cap in 367,000 miles.

[@ADDvanced]

That’s wild. I have relatively low miles and I’ve done maybe 6 caps over the past 30k miles. I am pretty sure this was my issue the entire time.

[@HeavyChevyGuy]

So basically in 367k miles, you never did a tune up on your van. Got it 😂

[@malikchams3932]

that's not normal cutting things to make it work is a big nono they where built to run with no adjustment and you just probably skipped a tooth on the gear take it back out and set cylinder 1 tdc and go from there

[@ADDvanced]

Check previous video for distributor replacement. You can verify it’s the same angle. This is caused by a stretch of the timing chain, search Astrosafari for more info

[@samicusify]

How to you set cylinder 1 to tdc?