0
Pontiac Catalina
The Pontiac Catalina is a full-size car manufactured by General Motors from 1950 to 1981. Its seventh generation model is available in 2-door coupe, 4-door station wagon and 4-door sedan with 3-speed THM200 automatic or 4-speed THM200-4R automatic transmissions.
134 Questions
What size of wheels go on your 1966 Pontiac catalina?
If by wheels you mean the steel rims, most Catalinas were equipped with 14 inch wheels. You can increase the size of the wheels, but that requires buying different tires.
Often times changing the wheels and tires from stock will require calibrating the speedometer. A larger tire spins fewer times per mile which causes the speedometer to indicate a slower speed. A change from 14 to 15 inch wheels won't make a huge difference in speedometer error (8%) unless you are driving at a very high rate of speed. As speed increases, error increases. Mounting wheels above 15 inches runs the risk of a speeding ticket unless you have a GPS unit that can be used as a fallback speedometer.
How do you hook up the wires for a 1965 Pontiac catalina?
By "wire" I presume you mean the ignition wires since that is the most common reference.
These instructions presume that you're just replacing an existing, old set and can identify the firing order of the distributor (which is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2, I believe counter-clockwise).
- Remove one wire at a time, starting with the shortest ones. Replacement sets have 9 wires, 4 pairs of roughly equal length and one oddball. The odd one joins the coil to the center post of the distributor.
- Route them away from any bare metal (which there is lots of) so that the wires don't try and ground on anything. Older cars have wiring harnesses to help, or you can buy a bag of cable ties at a hardware store for $1 and do it yourself.
- Be sure to firmly press the rubber boots onto the plugs and distributor cap. A soft snap or pop can be heard when they seat correctly.
- Double check that the wires aren't touching any bare metal (if possible) or other heat source that might melt the shielding.
- Start the engine and listen for any snapping. That's an indicator that a wire isn't fully seated.
- You can also check the engine RPM. If it's below normal, chances are good that one of the wires isn't seated correctly. I chased it down with my timing light. If the light didn't flash, there was no current passing through the wire.
Where is the number 1 position on the distributor on a 1966 389 Cubic Inch Pontiac Engine?
This is tricky to answer without an actual picture to point to. Stand on the driver's side of the car. If you have the timing set correctly to begin with, the #1 position is in (about) the 4 o'clock position nearest the firewall. I just peeked at my engine to confirm this.
Diagram spark plug wire order of a 72 Pontiac catalina?
Firing order is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2. The distributor rotates counter clockwise.
