Large cap HEI bench test...

[wayne petty]

ever wondered if the HEI unit you just picked up works...

got a pair of jumper cables??? or a jump start box??  a test lead with gator clips?

a piece of metal slightly larger than the top of the distributer that you can turn the distributer upsidedown on ..

invert the compete with  complete distributer on the metal,,    use the test lead to connect the vacuum advance bracket to the metal plate...   hook the ground jumper cable to the distributer housing,

use another short lead to hook from the HEI  BAT terminal to the positive jumper...  spin the shaft...  there should be sparks jumping from the tops of the spark plug wire terminals to the steel plate... and yes... if the distributer is working... it will throw sparks over an inch long...

the ground wire from the metal plate to the vacuum advance bracket returns the high voltage to the body of the distributer..

oh.. and a tip... for hard core racers... got a flat area on the distributer housing you can tap for a small bolt? something that won't fall out during a race...   with that.. run a 12  gauge wire to the back of each cylinder head...   this shortens the return route to the distributer housing..

the spark route goes from the coil, to the coil wire, through the cap , across the rotor, jumping the gap to the cap terminals,  down the wire and across the spark plug gap.    then through the head, the block , the intake and back to the distributer housing...

putting on this short cut removes the need for the spark to travel through the block and intake...   cost... cheep...  getting rid of misfires... priceless...

hope this helps a lot of people....