Well, I was going to wait and get another video today of a cold start but since you asked...

After rereading everything y'all wrote and long deep conversations with Justa6 on how distributors, and timing actually work. It caused me to revisit and recheck some things, again and did find a couple of things that could've led to some problems. 

I did sand down the balancer and found the factory mark which was under my mark. Lined that back up with zero, made sure the valves were both closed and #1 was TDC. Pulled all of the wires off the car and marked all the points on the cap. I pulled the plugs and double-checked NGK website. That was the 1st problem. The website said I should be running XR4's, not the XR5's the parts house gave me. They said the XR5's would work if I changed the compression, added 10psi or 125 shot of NOS. But the XR5's were not hot enough. I should've double checked. With new plugs (E3's, they were out of NGK XR4's) and everything at zero we found that every time I moved the dizzy a tooth it was actually jumping 2 teeth and there was a spot in the middle, I was not able to hit. The dizzy would drop down but not seat. causing it to be off justa a bit with where I was lining up. So, pushing down on the housing I bumped the engine and got it in the gear on the second try. He she is now, without the vac hooked up. I will post another video this afternoon with the vac hooked up.

10 hours ago, Fitzy said:

or you're now dousing it with gas and have a lighter ready.

Funny you say that. When I walked away Saturday, I told my son that if I don't walk away now, I'm gonna burn this b!^@h down. As we were talking about everything later, I may have even mumbled something about if Rosie is ever able to do a burn out, I'll get a tattoo the firing order, or something like that 

 

But seriously, thank you guys for helping me with these issues. I truly appreciate it!

well done mate! she sounds good 

1 hour ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

well done mate! she sounds good 

Thanks bro, She wouldn't be where she's at if it wasn't for y'all's advice and instruction.

Ok, so here's where we are today guys. Cold start and ran for about 10min to get up to temp then restart. Hooking up vac adv. brought rpm's up from 900 to 1600 so ill back that down later. Vacuum went from 11-12 up to about 17. Thats exciting, that's the highest I've seen. 

8 minutes ago, Wrongway said:

Ok, so here's where we are today guys. Cold start and ran for about 10min to get up to temp then restart. Hooking up vac adv. brought rpm's up from 900 to 1600 so ill back that down later. Vacuum went from 11-12 up to about 17. Thats exciting, that's the highest I've seen. 

5. 6 1Cold start.MOV 5.6 2Vac adv hook up.MOV 5.6 3Gauges vac hooked up.MOV 5.6 4Restart.MOV

Congrats!!! Sounds really nice.... 

Thank you sir, she's getting closer and I'm getting excited again! 

Pontiacs run with full vac advance even at idle - that's why you have to unplug & block the line when you initially set the timing. When you reconnect the vac and check the timing marks whilst idling, you'll see advance.

Anyway, she runs and does sound good. I can relax now.

Time to be go do some skids mate !!! 

Yeah, justa need to do a couple repairs to brake line flares (I think ) then see if she will do a burn out!

So, I think I'm done with the timing for now. Did what I think is the final adjustment and adjusted the carb. She starts quick and feels like she's got power. Test drive coming soon!

Sounding very happy 

justA one tiny issue I can see !!! 
you may need a steering wheel to go in that test drive 

2 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

justA one tiny issue I can see !!! 
you may need a steering wheel to go in that test drive 

Hey now! I have a steering wheel! It hangs in the garage currently. 

The steering wheel is seldom the problem Wrongway, it's usually the nut behind the wheel. 

Awesome - I am genuinely happy for you. I HATE it when the car doesn't do what it's told. Kiwi's right - sounds really nice.

Thanks buddy, im justa glad I had you guys to fall back on and help my get through this.

On 5/7/2025 at 9:43 PM, Wrongway said:

Hey now! I have a steering wheel! It hangs in the garage currently. 

OOOOh racing quick disconnect steering wheel??? Grab it N let's do a test drive.

May be a couple years old, but it's still a new rebuild.  Break in before doing the RoadKill burnout for distance!!!

Nothing that glamorous, it needed to be rebuilt or replaced and got put on the back burner a couple years ago. Its almost done though so more pictures to come of that project shorty.

Does anybody know the proper name for the 4 stainless steel rings that go around the grip part of the steering wheel?

They are either called slip rings or steering wheel notches.

If it is used to send electricity from the wheel to some other part of the car (e.g. the horn, cruise control, radio controls, etc.), then it is called a slip ring.

If it used to simply mark the top of the steering wheel that let's the driver center or re-center the wheel, it is called a steering wheel notch.

Otherwise it is just decoration.

Thank you Frosty, the ring in question is a decoration piece. I may be misinformed but I was told that these steering wheels had a silver ring separating the vinyl from the acrylic. If they did not, somebody please let me know so I can stop searching for them 

No idea what the blue steering wheel is but it has an example of the rings, and again, I'm not positive that the 63' had them. Justa what I was told.

Do you like those rings, Wrongway? I had a good look at those pics and (personally) I reckon they look a bit fussy - you know, extra bling just for the sake of it. If you were to delete them and just had a solid coloured rim it'd still look the goods.

It seems that back when manufacturers were proud of their product, they'd add an extra splash of chrome here or a little stainless trinket there in order to justify whatever price premium they may have been after. I mean, if you chose a Poncho over a Chevy back in the day, you'd want some extra bling to show the neighbours when they asked what you paid for it.

Well, it's not so much that I like them. But I'm still trying to redo the clear acrylic and paint the vinyl part to match the body color. But I couldn't find a pic of a 63 that had them. After being told that they did I figured I would double check with y'all before cutting notches in the steering wheel.

I should take the cover off the safari and see what it’s got for you mate ….

it’s currently all wrapped up while I work on the chassis 

I will be working on it this coming weekend 

So I will make a point of taking a pic of its wheel 

I want to set the ride height and find out how bad that pinion angle is on the 12 bolt diff 

My 64 bonni didn’t have rings in the wheel 

Wrongway … that’s a caddy steering wheel 

 

1964 I think 

Wrongway !!!

stop what your doing !!!

theres a guy who can fix your wheel !!!

look !!! 👀 

https://steeringwheelkris.com/

 

Edited May 15, 20251 yr by 64 kiwi boni