Matthew Andrews

Ok I'll try again tomorrow, just one more question. If the cam retard is reading 30° (positive) then I need to rotate forward(clockwise) correct?

If you're talking about the part that mounts the distributor, I am using one that allows the distributor to freely spin when loose, but the distibutor will only turn so far before the cap butts up against the plenum. This is why I've come to the conclusion that its slotted in the wrong tooth, but I don't know enough to get any further than that lol. Thank you for your response!

Hey, so I recently changed the distributor in my 99 yukon 5.7l, and I am having a super hard time getting the cam retard back to zero. It is currently off by 30°. I have tried moving it a tooth forward and a tooth backwards and both situations result in a no-start, although at 30° it starts and runs daily but I'm pretty sure my mpg has tanked. I have reinstalled this thing like 4 times now trying to see if I can get any closer and its just not happening and I'm getting pretty frustrated. Is there something I'm missing or forgetting? Could it be two or 3 teeth I need to skip? I tried googling but couldn't find the number of degrees each tooth consists of. Also I'm definitely reading the cam retard at above 1k rpm, and I've tried just spinning the distributor clockwise but it cant go any further without hitting the plenum. Everything I read says this is so easy as long as you have a scanner, but theres something I'm not doing right lol. Also is there any way to try out different teeth without having to reset tdc to get it back? Thank you for your time! Sorry if I rambled!