Distributor timing

[dogberry]

Ok, I have taken out the capacitor on my 914 and i installed the new one. But I would like to know the contact locations for the capacitor. Are they the case and the wire leading out of the bottom of it? I connected the wire and the case is on good but I am still not sure if it works because it is not starting.
Also, I turned the distributor rotor and it seems that I might have messed up the timing. But I do not know how to time the engine. So I could use some help as a newbie to this sort of thing. Let me know what I need to do to get my engine running again. Thanks, Jon

[Pritchard]

There is an excellent article in the Tech Articles section for the 914 about setting the dwell and timing.

Basically, you need to get the motor to Top Dead Center. If you can see the timing marks on your fan housing, this is an easy process. To see the marks I would recommend removing the spark plugs to make turning the fan (by hand only) easier. You will probably have to lay on the rear trunk to get to a position to see the marks as they are on the rear side of the fan housing. Assuming that you can get the motor to TDC, remove the dist. cap and turn the dist. housing until the rotor points at the notch in the dist. housing. This notch is pointing toward the front of the motor. Tighten down the clamp for the dist. and reinstall the dist. cap. The plug wires go in this order (if looking down on the cap from the rear of the car): 11:00 = #1, 2:00 = #4, 5:00 = #3, and 8:00 = #2. The firing order is: 1-4-3-2.

I would recommend reading the article, but this should be enough to get you close enough to start the car.

Hope this helps.