009 aligment question

[FJCamper]

I hope someone knows the actual answer to this question. I've heard answers from doomsday to it-doesn't-matter.

A 009 has a #1 cylinder alignment notch stamped in the rim of the distributor body. We are told to have the rotor pointing at the notch when the cam is actually aligned with Cyl #1 for firing.

But, what if the cam is on #1 according to the crank but the rotor is pointing at what should be Cyl #2 on the distributor -- and to make the engine run, all the cap wires have been moved so #1 wire agrees with the rotor.

The engine will run, of course.

BUT the question is, this being a centrifugal distributor, will there not be some influence on the timing beng set from the #2 position, and not from the #1 notch?

Thanks. FJC

[ps2375]

None. You could put is in 180* out and as long as the wires are aligned properly, it won't make a bit of a difference. The only issue I see is if you have someone working on an ign or timing problem and they don't know it isn't indexed properly, they'll get very confused in short order.

[ONEBADBUG]

"Real" VW distributors have a few degrees of retard built into the points lobe for #3, so you want #3 to be #3. It's a simple matter to reinstall the dist drive correctly. As far as aftermarket dist's, like 009 and the various clones, I doubt they went to the trouble of grinding the cam lobes different.

[Piledriver]

Old vacuum only models had retard on #3 AFAIK, I thought the same, then Marc or Bruce2 ...or Glenn? corrected me.
(and then the timing light on a herd of different factory distributors confirmed it)

There is also an oil port (splash) that ideally should be lined up a certain way but I have never seen an issue from that being in any orientation.
You should still hit the advance mechanism felt wick under the rotor with a drop or two of oil occasionally.

[Marc]

The "retarded #3" was done to help keep it cool with the old-style fan shroud; with the advent of the doghouse cooler setup this was no longer needed. It's a simple enough thing to check for, just compare the timing of #3 to that of #1. Only the oldest 0 231 178 009 distributors will have this "feature" ...intentionally, anyway
When the distributor housing is aligned as intended, a hole in its side is exposed to oil splash from the engine internals so theoretically the bushing life could be reduced by having it in askew - but I've never observed this to be anything worth losing sleep over, the oily crankcase vapors which inevitably find their way up along the shaft seem to be enough to lubricate things.

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/829781.jpg

[ONEBADBUG]

So, I was almost correct! I try to put the drive in right just because, but have had engines where it's wonky for some reason, never had an issue. Didn't know about the oil hole alignment.