[CJ428CJ]

Regarding the checking of the timing mark on the dampner, it makes no difference whether you do that on the compression stroke or the exhaust stroke. The only time that makes a difference is when you're installing the distributor since the distributor revolves once for every two revolutions of the crankshaft. If you install the distributor on the exhaust stroke, you'll be off 180 degrees and the car shouldn't start at all. Instead of using my finger, I just stuff a paper towel or rag over the spark plug hole. When that blows off, I know I'm coming up on the compression stroke.

Dan, I had a similar problem with my 428. I couldn't figure out why it wanted so much initial advance. After tinkering with it for a few nights, I finally figured out that that cap wasn't sitting on the distributor properly. When I put the distributor in, I lined up the rotor to the #1 plug wire correctly but I had the distributor installed 180 degrees off. I hadn't realized that the cap would go on either correctly or 180 degrees off. It still clipped on okay, but the "rejection" feature on the cap caused the cap to rock back and forth a bit and I didn't notice it right away. Once I fixed that, the motor was happy with 15 degrees initial instead of the 30 or so that it wanted before the fix.

Chris