[Faith No More]

I've recently rebuilt my whole top end and now im comin' around to finishing this sucker up! all i've left to do is set the Rockers in the right position; the rockers I'm assuming are stock; they have a washer, and a half-sphere object inside of it and bolt that's a part of the block, and a nut to hold it down onto the rods. What's the torque specs?

Also; my distributor (Mallory distributor) has three wires coming out of it, a brown one, a green one, and a red one. What goes where?

Also, on the passenger side of the carberator there's a round black object with two wires coming out, one wire goes to the positive side of the coil, where does the other go?

Thank you for any help!

[RF Mustang]

If the heads are stock, there is no torque spec. How far you adjust the rocker depends on if you have a hydraulic or mechanical tappet cam.

First, before you adjust the rocker, make sure you physically rotate the engin till the cam lobe is at its lowest point for that rocker ( your valve is closed at this point and the rocker should not be touching the top of the valve stem).

If you have a hydraulic cam / lifter, spin the push rod with your fingers while tightening the nut. Once you cant spin the push rod with your fingers (using very minimal force) Stop..... then turn the nut about another 1/4 to 1/2 turn more and stop again. repeat the same for each rocker / valve. (again rotate the engine at the harmonic balancer to get the cam lobe for that rocker at its lowest point).

If you have a mechanical cam /lifter. do the same as per above except you will adjust the rocker leaving a .010 gap between the rocker and the valve stem. Use a feeler gauge to set the gap. At the cam lobe lowest point, adjust the rocker down with the feeler gauge between the rocker and valve stem. You should be able to slip the gauge out and back in if you set the gap right.

Distributor:
If you have an INTERNAL balast resister wire set up. wires go as follows
Red - Positive side of the coil (bat)
Brown - negative side of the coil
Green - Chassis or engine ground

If you have an EXTERNAL balast resister set up. wires go as follows
Red - Positive side of the coil (bat)
Green - negative side of the coil
Brown - Chassis or engine ground

The black thing with the two wires on the passenger side of the carb is an electric choke. One wire should be connected to the "stator' terminal of your alternator. some people will tell you should connect it to your coil but it can some times interfere. connector it to the stator terminal on the alternator is a better choice. the other wire will connect to chassis ground.

Good luck !

[Faith No More]

Thank you, RF Mustang that was incredibly helpful!

But 'alas, I'm not sure what kind of cam I've got, all i know is the engine's essentially a stock '68 302, although it's got an edelbrock 289 Performer, and the heads are stamped with "65A" and "289"

Nor do i know about the balast resister, all I know is the wires were only going to the coil/a bolt on the Carb originally, i believe.

Also; I cannot wire it to the alternator because the jackass (excuse my french) who owned the car before made a single wire-chevy alternator conversion on the car, so i currently have a high-output Powermaster one-wire alternator hooked up to it.

But, i'll give it all a try tomorrow morning and i'll let you know, again you've been extremely helpful, thank you!

[72 fastback]

On my 1969 302 heads you had to torque down the rocker arms. They should be rail type.

[Faith No More]

Ok, all perfect except one thing, my rockers are hitting my valve cover, or so it seems. (there's wear on the valve cover from the back part of the rockers where the springs are)

What do I do? I've tightened them each, and they're all really tight now but it's still hitting, but not as bad..

[Faith No More]

Thank you, you two! You've both been extremely helpful, I got 'er running again and she's running smooth

Thanks!