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I have a 76 luv with an 83 block. i've been having trouble getting it running right. the head is a new rebuild 76. the motor is a salvaged 83 pup short block, with the 76 distributor. At first i thought it was the carb, but I just rebuilt it and it still acts the same. the timing mark when i timed it read that it was extremely retarded, but it ran fine. If i moved it to right on it would die. I think my distributor is bad. Can anyone help me out?

I'm not the best at wrenching, but did you check the O ring on the dist. the gasket btwn the dist cap and the body gets lost as well. Do a search on camshaft alingnment I don't remember the tpic name so do some looking your timing chain might've slipped. welcome to the site.

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Dr. Frankenstein

yeah, i checked all the cam timming like 4 different times. im gunna check for o rings, cuz i dont remember any being there.

It does sound like cam/crank/disti alignment could be off. Here is the short version of how to check:

Pull the valve cover
Turn the motor to line up the crank pulley mark with 0 degrees
The camshaft mark should be straight up or down, the pin that goes into the cam gear is in line with the mark if it is hard to find
If you have trouble finding the mark on the cam gear, roll the motor over one more turn back to 0 degrees
The rotor on the distributor should be nearly lined up with #1 or #4

Pull the distributor
Looking down the dist hole you should see the slot the disti shaft fits into
It should be lined up front to back (off the top of my head I'm suddenly not sure on this, could be top to bottom, will update in a few after I check the book)

I was right to think that I was wrong. Here is a better run down now that I've read up and slept:

Line up the mark on the cam with the head mark. The cam has a hash mark just behind the gear.
The crank pulley should be lined up at 0 degrees
The slot the dist shaft fits into should be straight up and down with the slot offset toward the front.
The dist should have #4 at about firing position


I got to thinking last night. If your block is a G200 and the head came off a 76, it could be a compression problem. I have a truck with a similar setup (newer motor, older head) and it comes up with 195lbs of compression when tested. The G200 head could have a bigger chamber, so putting a G180 head on a G200 block might be raising the compression ratio up there to where detonation is happening. I have yet to get that truck I have like this on the road, only just running at idle, so I don't know what effect it will have.

yeah...... but my truck goes down the road fine. it just doesnt like to go slow. it actually seems to have ALOT of power once the secondary opens up. there seems to be alot of play in the dist, i think maybe thats causin my problem. thanx for all your help

Yeah, slop in the dist could cause you problems. From my experience they tolerate a fair bit of up/down play without noticable effects, but if the shaft wobbles it throws them off quite a bit. There is also a mechanical advance in there that might be screwed up. The shaft should rotate one way with a little effort. If it it moves a lot without having to work at it, it will mess with the timing. I would think you'd see some of the slop showing up with the timing light though, as an unsteady reading.

Just another place to look, but have you adjusted the valves? If they aren't opening far enough or staying slightly open at rest that could be contributing. And, as always, check for vac leaks. No LUV would be complete without a few vac leaks.