Hello. Got the beast running for the first time. Many new, and many old parts so trouble shooting is tough. I set my advance to 27 deg. with the vac hoses off and 3500 rpm. It will barely run when I return to idle with the hoses re-connected. It will idle but very high if I turn the dizzy ccw. It has both advance and retard hoses. They do seem to work with the dizzy off the car. The car idle gets worse with the large hose connected. the smaller hose has little effect. Car is a 74 2.0 with a pertronix. Any help greatly appriciated. Thx.

So far i have surmised that it does not have enough advance at idle. If I advance the dizzy it runs ok. If I suck on the vac advance at idle it runs ok. Whats missing?

bump Anybody?? Some very smart people here. No one wants to hazard a guess?

I'll take a guess here. Is your mechanical advance working? When you have the timing light hooked up and you rev the car up, can you see the timing mark move? The car should work ok without the vaccuum advance hooked up. My car is a 74 and it never had the vaccuum advance, just the retard. It almost sounds to me like your mechanical advance is stuck in an advanced position. Of course this is all a guess. Too bad I didn't read this earlier, I was just in Calgary on Sunday night/Monday morning, I would have stopped by and gave you a hand.

I can't help at all, but I sure get a kick out of your
thread title!
Rich

The mechanical advance is working. If in Calgary stop by and say hi. Help fix something. Open invite.
As for the problem here is what I have written someone else. Rather than retype I will just copy it here.
I agree. Using what you have told me I can get it to run (not well) at 10 to 14 deg at idle with the hoses
hooked up. Run smoother with more but idles higher. Full advance with the hoses hooked up is approx.
54 deg. !!! Without the advance hose it is about 5 deg less. There does appear to be some loss of spark
signal at full advance 3500 rpm. If I turn it down to 27 deg. no hoses it will not idle with them re-attached.
I have gone over other components as follows:
Tried two MPS and measured them for resistance etc.
Set TPS
Injectors are new
Spark plugs are new
Plug wires are new
Cap and rotor are new
Replaced pertronix with points (same result)
Tried ecu from 1.7l (same result)
Tried different timing light
Re-checked indexing of dizzy.

The engine has euro pistons and cylinders. lightened flywheel. Balance is stock.

I did replace the cam with NOS. I had to replace the gear as well. Maybe I got it off by 1/5 of a turn?
Wouldn't the valves hit if I did?