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Install Chevy 4.3L & 5.7L Vortec

Distributor
By svfixer, 9 years ago

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Edited bt svfixer Dec. 9, 2016

The engine front cover has 2 alignment tabs and the crankshaft
balancer has 2 alignment marks (spaced 90 degrees apart) which are
used for positioning number 1 piston at top dead center (TDC). With
the piston on the compression stroke and at top dead center, the
crankshaft balancer alignment mark (1) must align with the engine
front cover tab (2) and the crankshaft balancer alignment mark (4)
must align with the engine front cover tab (3).

Rotate the crankshaft balancer clockwise until the alignment marks

on the crankshaft balancer are aligned with the tabs on the engine
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 on the crankshaft balancer are aligned with the tabs on the engine
front cover and the number 1 piston is at top dead center of the

compression stroke.

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Install a NEW distributor gasket onto the distributor.

Align the indent hole on the driven gear with the paint mark on the
distributor housing. This positions the rotor shaft in the proper
‘retarded’ orientation to compensate for the fact that the shaft will turn
clockwise, to the final rotor pointer position, when the distributor is
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 fully seated to the engine. [You may also need to align the oil pump
drive shaft, down through the distributor hole in the block, (with a

screw driver) to match the position of the distributor shaft drive tang.]

#6Pointer

Install'lead'position

#8Pointer

Ensure that the rotor points to the appropriate ‘witness’ mark on the
distributor body (either the 6 for the 4.3 or the 8 for the 5.7 {the
numbers 6 & 8 may or may not be present}). Reference the
relationship between the two marks and the ‘flat’ portion of the
distributor body.
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 #1firingposition
5.7L8cylVortec

#1firingposition
4.3L6cylVortec

Install the distributor and distributor clamp.

The flat in the distributor housing must point toward the front of the
engine.
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 engine.

If the distributor rotor segment does not come within a few degrees of
the number 6 pointer (1) or the number 8 pointer, the gear mesh
between the distributor and camshaft may be off a tooth or more.
Repeat the procedure again in order to achieve proper alignment.
The distributor can be mounted in this position only. Proper alignment
(timing) must be achieved by correct installation of the rotor shaft.

Chevy 4.3L-5.7L Vortec Distributor Install, Part 2

57 Comments:

Molly Bain:
Thanks for the detailed post!
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 Thanks for the detailed post!

DIRTY HARRY:
thanks a bunch. loads of simple help for us yo-yo’s that want to
play with wrenches. that 1345 code was driving me nuts. the
books are all out to lunch on this subject and very hard to
understand. you made it very simple. thank you again.
dirty harry

Dan:
Why do you turn the distributpr segment to the casted #6 after the
distributor is seated? if the distributor is clamped down, how can
you turn the rotor? Is this for a 6 cylinder or 8?
These illustrations are great and your explination is clearer than
the manuals. Thanks and please help me understand my
question.

svfixer:
I believe what is trying to be conveyed is that with everything in
re-assembled position (i.e. distributor body lined up with the
clamp in position), the rotor should line up with the # 6. If it
doesn’t, this would indicate that the distributor gear isn’t in the
right relationship to the cam gear.
Yes, this would be for a 6 cylinder; but you will note there is also a
notch with an 8 for a 8 cylinder.

Johnny:
What if ur distributor don’t have that 6 on it?
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 michael:
Well I’ve been looking all over the Crankshaft balancer on my 5.7
vortec and can’t find but one mark. But I see one tab on the top
side left and I think there’s a tab on the bottom left side more on
the inside cover by the seal. Pointing more to the inside of
Crankshaft wheel so where is the second mark on the balancer
wheel at please and thank you
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 mike poppens:
Whoa way off dam people read that too holy **** I feel dumder
cuz of it and my two Chevy trucks only have one line on the
harmonic balancer not two 96 sub 97 Silverado both almost
identical in every under the hood I needed the the timing it self ya
mean and no scanner has to be used that a horrible trick they
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 mean and no scanner has to be used that a horrible trick they
want u to believe to spend money at a dealership or garage or

combined with the places that sell the software to the dealers and
garages if its supposed to be +28° for timing please answer me
back

David D:
I too only see one notch if you will on the harmonic balancer. Put
finger over number one cylinder for compression stroke. So if I
line the notch with the indicator on the timing cover mark I should
be good. One other question is it will not hurt the engine if I turned
it counter clockwise in my quest to figure this out before I
discovered your page. So much for a simple job to replace oil
pressure sending switch. Thanks for your help your illustrations
were very understanding I will let you know how I make out

lewis:
read your info ? 97 chevy 5.7l has one timing mark on crank. 2
marks on distr. 6 & 8 ? after alignments rotor was 180 degrees of
where it should have been , # 8 ?????????

Roger:
I have a 94 with the old style distributor an don’t know how to
replace it

Ray:
It is TDC and rotor button is pointed to #8 not #1 why is this??
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 Danny:
The last part of this is wrong. You use the number 6 in the
distributor housing is for a six cylinder, and use the number 8 for
an 8 cylinder.

getrdone:
this was the most helpfull thing ive been able to find all night and
its 2am so thanks and good night

Lynch:
"Ensure that the distributor rotor segment points to the cap hold
area".
Please help me understand this. I don’t know what the "cap hold
area" is.

Dee:
Thanks a bunch for the response given here for guidelines for the
rotor button installation position references. good to know that the
8 is for V-8 and 6 is for V-6. Just to be clear on the hold down, are
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 you referring to the base alignment and the rotor button pointing
at 8 simultaneously?

Lynch:
Got it figured out. I understood the concept I just was having a
hard time with the wording. .......ended up being indexed
incorrectly after many attempts to time it within spec. Running like
a beast now.
Thanks for the reply. Take care.

John:
Using a 5.7 350 engine in a 2000 workhorse truck with the engine
code reader. How many degrees should it read at idle. I am
reading 19 degrees and it is running a little ruff.

David:
Why I’m I pointing the rotor towards the #6 plug when it’s #1 on
compression stroke and should be firing ? Seems to me it should
point towards #1 plug in cap !

mark:
ya I would like to know what you mean by, when you said if the
rotor points with in a "few" degrees of the mark on the distributor
housing. I have tried and tried to get the marks to line up exactly
and they never do, no matter how many times I have tried to do it,
it comes close but never exact. So when you say with in a few
degrees can you explain what that means cause I think that Im
close enough, but want to make sure that Im not to far, like a tooth
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 off, thank you.

svfixer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOR-9JZUUI0

Brent:
I have had this same problem mark and every attemp ends in
truck not starting. Very frustrated wish i knew what you found out
on that

Mark:
So here is what I found out, the distributor cap on this 4.3 liter
vortec is called a crossfire cap meaning, when you look at the
number one post on the cap if you follow the ridge from that post
when turning the cap over, you will see that the ridge goes over to
the post on the underside of the cap so when the rotor goes
around when it hits that post is crosses over that ridge to fire on
the number one plug. if you continue on looking at each individual
post that the rotor comes into contact with, say for example the
number two cylinder, if you turn the cap over the post for the
number two cylinder is on the opposite side of the cap, and so
goes all the rest. Im not sure what the designers of this cap had in
mind when they designed it, but it works. So now for installing the
distributor, first thing you want to do is start from scratch setting
everything up that way you know its all done right. So start by
bringing number on cylinder up on TDC compression stroke, the
timing mark needs to line up with the mark on the damper and the
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 timing cover, being careful not to disturb the motor from this point,
you can take the damper off and the timing cover off and look at

the mark that is on the camshaft gear and the crankshaft gear, the
mark on the camshaft gear should be pointing down at the 6
oclock pos. and the crankshaft mark should be at the 12 oclock
pos. if not then you are going to have to loosen up all of the
rocker arms and take the timing chain off so that you can turn the
camshaft gear free of the crank turn the camshaft to line up with
the crankshaft mark, meaning again that the timing mark on your
cam should be set to the 6 oclock pos. at this point you can be
assured that your cam and crank are in the proper pos. to reinstall
everything and reinstall your distributor. Installing the distributor if
you hold the distributor and the rotor pointing to just before the
mark on the housing (6) then when you drop the distributor in it
will drop right into the proper posistion and you should be good to
go. Let me know how that works for you.

Marianne:
When repairing the harmonic balancer, how do you line up the
two pieces of the actual HB. We are just putting a bandaid on the
HB to retire the car. But we unclear how exactly to make sure the
two-part balancer is right.

Mark:
Hi Marianne,
So the bad news is that although it is a two part HB, it was never
designed to be put back together once it has been pulled apart. I
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 have made that mistake as well it looks like that’s how it is. They
are made at the factory to come off the line as a balanced part, so

in the event of getting it back together, which might be possible, it

wont be balanced and will cause a really bad vibration. Sorry I
hope it gets better for ya. Have a great day.

Mark:
Brent so this is mark, just checking back with you wondering how
your project is going?

Brent:
Ni mark, thanks for you interest in my project. I still have not
gotten the distributor to line up on the proper 8 tab. I am waiting
for my new timing chain kit ordered. I figure if im going to take
apart to check that my hb and cam are lined up i might as well
replace the timing chain with 210000 miles on it. I therory is i can
not get the distributor to line up properly due to the slack in the
chain. Just a guess we will see soon. Thanks again mark

Mark:
Thanks, Good Article !

Brent:
Hi mark,
An update on my project
So i confirmed the cam and crank dots were lining up after all. I
did go through with replacing the chain. This after it decided to
stall out after warming it up before leaving for work. As it turned
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 stall out after warming it up before leaving for work. As it turned
out the chain was very sloppy and loose.

so now the the chain and gears have been replaced (lined up
beautifuly) distributor, wires, and plugs, coil test reads as they
sould. I am getting good blue spark, fuel is reaching all the plugs,
compression is good. The one constant factor is i can not get this
distributor to line up pointing directly at the 8cyl tab. It is closer but
still remains what looks to be a tooth off.
Is it possible this is a poor afternarket distributer that just is not
working properly?
That being said it was running pretty strong with a slight miss.
Without it lining up on the tab as it should previous to it cutting out
at warm up idle to a no start situation.
I am completly stumped to what is not letting this motor fire up
again. Again thanks for ur time and help!!

Ton'a:
98-99 GMC 5.7L/350 (vortec?) w/4L85 tranny
Is this internally or externally balanced
Need to replace Harmonic Balancer and would like to install Fluid
Balancer but do not list one for later 5.7/350’s:
Is the crank balancer shaft larger on these engines ?
Went through 4 distributors before I found one that would fire/run
and distributor is fully advance and timing is still 7 "degroots
retarded"?

Chris:
:
 So is the scry next to were it appears be a seem going up the
entire shaft? An what about getting the cam sensor right?

Danny:
The 6&8are in the opposite position on the pix compared to my
dist.

4.3 issue:
I done a intake gasket job on a 4.3 put all my marks on point and
it won’t start still cranks and still acts out of time I know there is
also a need to unplug the position switch behind the cap to adjust
but I’m still missing something??

Ton'a:
i WENT THROUGH 4 dISTRIBUTORS BEFORE i GOT ONE TO
WORK BUT TIMING IS STILL OUT :>(

Brent:
Might be 180 degrees out yet
Definetly doesnt pay to go with cheap caps on these vortecs!!

Taco R:
watch those new dist.’s played with my new dist for two days had
everything on tdc would not line up then dropped old one back in
and it would line up great started looking at new dist and the shaft
at the end was square the old one was tapered so got the old one
and switched shafts fit like a glove and runs great.

Bryan michel:
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 Bryan michel:
Very helpful and very professional.
Thank you so much.
Great job

Don:
Thank you, I didn’t know the right way.

PC.Dr.Who:
Crankshaft balancer alignment mark(s).
One at 2-o-clock (and) another at 4-o-clock.
(Both) are aligned at the (same time).
2-o-clock has a (middle notch), shaped like a "W".
4-o-clock has a (raised metal line).
Before compression stroke, fuel & air (intake valve) would open
then close. Otherwise, (incorrectly), exhaust valve would open
then close. Vortec 4.3L V6 Pistons:{2,4,6 & 1} are all closed
valves and (3) has exhaust valve open with (5) having fuel & air
intake valve open. Otherwise, (incorrectly), pistons:{1,3,5 & 4}
valves would all be closed and P(2) fuel & air intake valve would
be open with P(6) exhaust valve open. Now, (you don’t need) to
stick anything in the P(1) hole, used for the spark-plug, not your
finger or whatever you had in mind.

26 degrees of timing:
I have done this procedure multiple times and no matter the
position I am 26 degrees off on timimg.

joseph:
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 joseph:
Helpful but i have only one makr on harmonic balencer and no flat

spot on dist. body thanks for the help

BEEVEE:
Can anyone tell me the air gap spec between Rotor Contact and
Dizzy cap Contact for the GMC V8 Vortec. Got new pair and looks
miles too large like 2 to 3 mm !

BEEVEE:
..............please !

Shawn:
I’ve been trying to set mine this is the best video I’ve seen. I keep
coming a few degrees off however how do I remedy this situation?

Tiegs:
Your crank pully has a mark as the marks will line up when
cylinder#1 will be top dead center..you will actually be like 1or2
degree in time with key on engine off...my Astro 4.3 will be around
25or 27 degrees when idling and be in time do u have a scan tool
with liuve data? And beevee u will have a paper thin gap 2 or 3
mm seems a little bit much...I’ve been considering a gallon of gas
and a torch after the couple months I’ve been doing everything u
guys been doing..and if your cam position sensor isn’t lined up to
the manufacturer marks it will not be in time...I have service
manual on 2001 4.3 vortec if u need any info let me know and I
post it
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 post it

Jamie:
Awesome, thanks a ton!

Robert Womer:
No marks anywhere on the flat or arc of the cap base on this v6.
The flat was facing right (from the front) that recieves the ignition
module. Number 1 cylinder on the rotor faced left of center (ftf).
There was what appeared to be a yellow line right of center on the
firewall. It may have been a manufacturing mark. Again no marks
on the base plate or distributor coil housing. Can anyone explain?

Robert Womer:
Robert again. Three long days of trying to find fire in the hot
Arizona sun. Still no luck. These trucks engines are junk. 93
model s10 with a 94 blazer transplant. No TKP sensor. No CPS.
Intermittent fuel pump operation. These thing are frustrating as
hell.

svfixer:
‘96 and newer is what you need.

Sandy:
So we replaced the cap and rotor, well did a full tune up and need
maintenance on her 99 Blazer 4.3. There is no marks what so
ever for some reason on new distributor and we, like dummies
made no marks of our own before replacing old parts. Got engine
TDC and Blazer started but holly hell it runs horrible. Like the
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 TDC and Blazer started but holly hell it runs horrible. Like the
timing is still way off. Could be 180 off. How can I figure out the

correct position on the distributor itself with no marks before I drop

it back in. Can’t use a timing light because it’s a bolt down. I’m
trying to get done today while she is at school. This mom is tired
of being her taxi

svfixer:
You need to understand, and follow the directions, explicitly. It
works as described, but you have to be aware of the subtle
nuances of some of the directions. Not 180 out; it would backfire
and not start at all.
You don’t need the numbers on the distributor. The triangle at the
# 6 firing position will be there, numbered or not.
With any luck, you just have some of your spark plug wires are
crossed.

RT:
Thanks the great needed info

knucklebuster:
Highly useful... -BUT the repair manuals say unplug one of the
distributor connections and VERIFY the timing is at TDC / 0 deg
advance. THESE CAPS WERE A DISASTER! And caused many
failures in Nissan, GMC, and other engines. The insulator fails
just as a spark plug wire would, and Voltage Leaks (shorts)
happen within the plastic of the cap. It’s better to have a shorted
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 wire you can detect, than an invisible one; causing backfires,
misses, and vibration. Better to just get rid of the Distributor, and

wires... Less parts to fail - but now we are totally reliant on the
EEC units, and they are so EXPENSIVE. IF you use the early:
cap, rotor, and wires you can avoid a lot of burned valves, and run
much more smoothly. Be happy!

Cookies:
Hell yeah thank you. A lot. Help me out you just don’t believe how
much it is God bless you

David:
Yes I have a 4.3 v and my new distributor did not come when the
paint mark on the pickup shaft so how do I determine did it get the
notch and the paint Mart where it’s supposed to be lined up to set
my distributor back in

Andre:
That was very helpful and understanding but I was wondering if
that same process will work on the tall distributor cap

Tobiasglen:
I need help with this issue you are discussing. I got a 97 4.3 from
the salvage yard to put in my silverado but when i install the
distributor its always way past the #6 mark on the distributor base
ive checked and rechecked everything the timing chain cover
removed dots lined up but to get get the pointer to point at the #6
mark i can turn the engine by hand and align the mark but the two
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 mark i can turn the engine by hand and align the mark but the two
dots on timing chain no longer match up. Ive pulled the distributor

multiple times and tried to get it all in sync but to no avail. What
am i doing wrong? How can i fix this? I believe it has to do with
the cam shaft mesh you apoke of. How do you get it back in sync
with ur timing marks? Plz help thankyou

John:
I had that same problem on my 2000 Cadillac Escalade and what
I found to make mine line up was when u set the distributor in and
the rottor turns and is on is 8 or 6 but won’t go all the way down
when I get it on that mark,, if u will hold it in place right there and
have a friend bump the starter a time two, sometimes once and
then sometimes it might take a few times but it will eventually fall
in the position u need it in,, think of times it’s the oil pump that the
distributor set’s on is not lined up like the same from the other
distributor,, or some people like to take a flat head screw driver
and turn it, but when u bump the starter then u can see the rotor
lock into the 8 mark or 6 mark , the screw driver u may have to
pull the distributor out a couple times and turn it and repeat that
over and over till u got it lined up, but that’s what I did I couldn’t
get it to line up, so I positioned it right lined everything up and had
a friend bump the starter and it set perfectly, and that was my 4th
time trying to get it right,, just an opinion thanks hope y’all the best
luck on ur projects men!!!
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