distributor position

[powellwm]

I have a 1976 spider, was having problems timming it and getting it running right. finally took it into a shop and they
replaced the condensor and cleaned the points and repositioned the distributor,,, I have never seen a picture of one like mine, the wires are pointing toward the front of the car, shouldn't they be toward the engine? when I took the car in the
distributor had the wires pointing toward the engine but timming light showed it was about 20degrees off. I thought the
distributor was keyed to only go in one way or 180 degree out.. anyway just trying to find out if this is normal or what I
should do about it.

[So Cal Mark]

the dist can go in any position, the wires normally point towards the left front corner of the engine, but that isn't critical

[124JOE]

i have it pointed at #4

[azruss]

the dizzy can be located in many positions, what is most important is to have the rotor connecting with the #1 cap contact when the motor is at TDC. from here time with a light.

[124JOE]

not to start anything but...
...why wont mine run at all with it on #1?
but#4 runs fine

[ventura ace]

When you loosen the distributor clamp, and rotate the distributor, you are changing the spark event timing. When you remove the clamp, and pull the whole distributor out, you can put it back in at any rotation that you want (you'll need to rotate it again when it's in place to achieve the optimum spark even timing.

Nothing special with Fiats, just typical old distributor design. The aim is to install it in an orientation where the wires point in a convenient direction to avoid interference with anything else they may bump into.

Alvon

[rlux4]

Put another way: when a motor with distributor is turned off the rotor could be in any position in the 360° rotation. If the distributor is pulled out it can be repositoned into any orientation and replaced just so long as the rotor is positoned along with it so as to be pointing to the same spot on the distributor as it was when the motor stopped. If you end up doing this yourself, just be aware that as you insert the distributor the gears for the rotor aren't straight, they're helical, so the rotor will be forced "forward" as it goes down on the gears. You need to start inserting the distributor with the rotor pointing "behind" the point it needs to be at when it is fully seated.
Ron