Installing
a Blue Bird Series II Electronic Distributor
Into
Your L Series Engine.
Obtaining The
Distributor.
The First thing is to find the distributor. After hunting around Melbourne
for a while i ended up calling Nissan wreckers. People have said its possible
to get them at places like "Pick A Part" but i wouldn't trust this because
there is no warranty on any of the parts and its very rare that the distributors
are still in the BlueBird by the time they make it there.
Your best bet is to call wreckers, i live in the south eastern suburbs
in melbourne so the best place for me to start was in Moorabin, due to
the large number of wreckers off Warrigal road. The first place i called
was Datt/Niss wreckers down in Cheltnam. They quoted me $175 for one but
when the guy went looking for one found out they were all broken. My next
call was Nisscar which is down off South Rd. Anyway they wanted $185 which
was the full distributor including the Cap ( i know they are cheap but
its nice to get the whole distributor ). Also it had a thirty day warranty
which is nice. I can hear you now saying "Why pay so Much ?" Well when
you consider that these distributors from nissan new are $300 or so, i
thought seeing i get the same warranty as Nissan i could almost get it
for half price. I've heard people have obtained them for as low as $50
from a wrecker who doesn't know there thing but i'd spent awhile looking
around and not finding one i thought $185 wasn't to bad.
Other
Parts Required
Ok so you've obtained ur distributor from where ever. Now you have to
change your coil over from the points type to the new electronic type.
This will cost you about $50. I recommend and so do most ignition places
for that matter, the Bosche coils, simple because the Series II Distributor
is Bosche made. The model number is HEC275.
Now the other thing you have to decide is do you want to hook up the
Vacumm Advance system from the Dizzy to the manifold. If your running a
stock manifold this is easily done, but if your running a DatRally manifold
like my self for a set of Twin Webers then your in a bit of trouble because
the only way to get the vacumm from the manifold is via the brake line
which runs to my brake booster. Now i can hear you saying, "But what happens
if the piping breaks, you've lost your brakes. Well i solved this problem
because on the hose i have a One Way Valve which means if my pipe breaks
then there is still pressure until i turn the car off which means i can
then fix it.
The best way to break into the brake line is to get a T-Piece. It took
me a little while to find the right brace piece but i eventually did at
a Hydrolic Fittings place called Purple Pig. It cost me $18 which is pretty
expensive but considering i'd just spent $235 all up so far, i thought
another $18 was well worth it for the car to run super smooth whilst idling
even with a lumpy cam. This T-Piece has the top bit with the larger brass
pipe and then the smaller fuel line piping which i run from there to the
vacumm advance on the distributor.
Installing
The Distributor.
Ok so your home with your new ( oh well close to in my case ) distributor
and its time to spend about 1 hour putting it all in and hooking it up.
Here is a list of what you will need:
-10mm open end or ring spanner.
-Wire clipers.
-Wire strippers.
-Cable joiners.
-Pipe clamps ( if installing vacumm advance ).
Removing The
Old Distributor
Before you start its my advice that you take note of how the old distributor
was placed inrelation to timming on the distributor housing on the block.
Mark this with a pen or what ever, i actually found that if you look on
the base of the Bluebird distributor and u will see 2 metal lines which
mark the aproximate middle of the distributor. I actually installed the
dsitributor with this in the center and it worked perfectly, even with
my custom head and cam etc.
Ok well grab ya 10mm spanner and undo the two bolts which hold in the
old distributor. Take the cap of the points distributor but leave the Distributor
leads attached for later on. Put your old distributor asside and grab the
electronic one. Put the new one in and put the two bolts back in and adjust
the distributor so its approximately centered. Do the bolts up firmly but
not tightly so you can still turn the distributor when you start the engine.
Wiring It Up.
Ok so the dizzy's in, now its time to do the wiring, this is were people
seem to panic but i actually found it the easiest part of the installation.
The two wires comming out of the distributor are pink and green. Firstly
don't disconnect the 2 wires connected to ballast resister, just leave
them connected for the moment. Also while your at it remember which wires
went onto the positive side of the coil and what went onto the negative.
Now mount the new coil ( which ain't a cylinder unfortunately ) but
ur old holes should fit the new mounts. Now the PINK attaches to the positive
bolt on the coil and the GREEN on the negative. Once this is done, put
the double adapter on top of the positive+ and on the negative- because
if you have a Tacho you will have to hook it backup.
Once this is done take the two wires off the Ballast Resistor and cut
the connectors off, strip the wires and join the two wires together. From
there connect the positive wire to the positive side of the coil. Now there
should be one connection left over, this is simple an earth from what i
can tell so don't bother connecting it up. If you forget what your positive
wire was don't stress, simple connect one up to the negative side of the
coil and try and start the car. Now if it starts then you have the right
one connected, if not don't worry it doesn't hurt the distributor in anyway
because its just an earth, so connect the other wire and you should be
in business.
The car should start first go, ( i can't believe how well it starts
). It may idle rough, this is were you adjust the distributor, just basically
make it so it idles pretty quick then do the bolts up. You can do the timing
now on your new distributor if you don't plan to hook up the vacumm advance.
If you do plan to use the vacumm advance, hold on there is a little more
work to be done.
Hooking Up
The Vacumm Advance.
Ok so your pretty pleased with your self because the car starts, well
its time to make it idle smoother than you've ever experienced via the
Vacumm Advance. Now grab the brass fiting i told you about. In my case
the Brake Vacumm line runs from the Brake Booster, over the rocker cover
and into the pipe comming out of the manifold. Well on the pipe, about
10-20cm after the brake booster i have my one way valve installed so prevent
brake failure ( hopefully i haven't tested this yet). So my advice is where
the pipe runs over the rocker cover, cut the Brake Vacumm line in half.
Put the brass T-Piece in and use the Hose clams to keep it tight. From
there connect the thin pipe ( the fuel line ) to the T-Piece and running
it to the vacumm advance on the distributor. Use another 2 hose clams to
keep it in place. Just a little note, its prolly worth trying to keep it
off the rocker cover so it doesn't melt. Once this is done, start the car
and check that the brakes still work, ull know if they don't because they
will be ROCK Hard. Another note, make sure if you take our your one way
valve that you put it back in the right way. I didn't and it caused me
about 40minutes of heart ache, wondering why the hell my brakes didn't
work anymore.
Setting the
timing.
Well your nearly home and hosed with your new dizzy. Now all thats left
is to do your timing, well most people know how to do this, if you don't,
take it to ur local mechanic and get him/her to do it for you. JUST remember,
if your gonna take it to ur mechanic, tighten those bolts for the distributor
right up so the dizzy doesn't start rotating on you whilst you drive to
the mechanic.
All Done.
Ok so its all done, well now your car should start awhole lot
better on the cold mornings due to the stronger spark and other factors.
There should also be more torque when getting away, and if you were to
put it on a dyno, a smoother torque curve. Also there will be a power improvement
on the dyno. Not much but it will be a nicer car to drive all round. Most
mechanics / auto electricians reakon its one of the best things to get
more noticeable power out of your Datsun.
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