when we set the timing at full advance what would cause the balancer to not stay at the same spot?
when revved to 3k rpms the "0" bounces around, we have tried two different distributors and still the same thing, but when checking the timing at idle its steady

What kind of distributor? 009 or a vacuum advance??

009
the first one was the chinese cheap one and then I swapped with a bosch

I was having the same issues with the 009 in Brandon's car. We finally pulled it out and put a vacuum advance distributor in it. I like it way better..

Vac distributor on stock is so much better.

I may have to try one and see, its running decent right now but if it will be better with a vac advance then why not run one

Power band is way better with the vacuum advance on a stock motor. I understand the why's but would be better for one of the motor czars to explain.

Becuase the carb. is delivering air and fuel off idle to the cylinder as doing so it create a vacuum which advances the distributors timing which is helpful with building power at low rpm -if the carb and the dist are tuned together - as some canisters require a different signal to function properly.. the motor likes timing or the advancement of it so staying back while trying to accelerate can cause a stumble or poor power band down low.. the 009 is very lazy on the bottom end of the rpm range and slowly sweeps up to full advance around 3k rpms.. once high enough most if not all distributors will be doing the same job. it is the lower end sweep( called Curve) that a motor either likes or doesn't.

I like the 019/010 for this reason as they more aggresive in the curve and thus allow the motor create good HP/Torque at lower rpms which is our seat of the pants driving and where we all like to have some get up and go...

The SVAs Single Vacuum advance distributor -which only advance from the vac signal created by the carb usually is a nice choice for stock motors since they are working as a "team" to give the motor smooth operation..

the common 009 is lacking in the curve low down say 900 -1300 and thus the motor "dies" off a bit - most guys who have powerful motors don't worry about this because the motor can just plow through this lag on it's own..


But even big motors like to be have a curve they is beneficial to it's power devolpement down low..


THis is just my take on distributors and what I have learned over the years of what is best

Great explanation Tommie

Fool sounds smart