distributor hitting firewall???

Well i was timing my nova, and the cap is hitting the firewall and its still a little sluggish when i gun it. Do i have to pull the whole distributor and then set it to fire at 1 again??

hitting your firewall? What are you timing the thing at?

What year is your Nova? What distributor are you using? The HEI unit will rub on the firewall on the 74 and earlier models.

If you have the correct distributor for your car and it's just the vacuum diaphragm hitting the wall when you try to set it to the correct timing, then lift the distributor up enough to disengage the drive gear, turn it one tooth and re-engage. Repeat if necessary until it's positioned where you want it and you have the correct timing.

Most people (including myself) dent in the firewall a little bit to give the HEI distributor a little room.

how would i got about denting it in a lil bit

Pull the distributor, carb and the hood. Stand on the valve covers facing the front of the car, swing an 8 pound sledge hammer between your legs and give the firewall a whack or 3. Mark out the area in chalk first.

Or 4 ! :biggrin:

Personally I prefer putting a Pertronix Igniter (or similar conversion) in the stock distributor. This eliminates the points so it runs great, plus it still looks stock and there are no clearance problems.

I once seen a Nova where the guy even cut out a section of his firewall behind the distributor and welded in a "bowl" shaped piece of metal to add clearance. He did a great job, It looked real nice, but it seemed like a lot of trouble to me. Then again, like posted above, you always have the BFH technique. It all depends on what you want.

what I did was pull the distributor and carb got a 2by4 and a sledge hammer so there was less of a chance of acidentlly hitting something important. Hold the 2by4 were you want the dent and pound away