9 replies to this topic

[Edington]

I'm setting up the timing and have put a blob of yellow paint on the small vee of the crank shaft pulley but there isn't a saw tooth market on the engine side. What reference point do I use? Is the saw tooth marker only fitted to certain years?

[GraemeC]

Yes, only some (later) cars had the 'teeth'.  Before that some had a line and TDC pressed into the timing cover.

Prior to that the timing marks were on the flywheel, under the little cover plate on the wok.

[Edington]

Ok Thanks GraemeC. So when shining the strobe onto the pulley is the TDC on number cylinder when my yellow mark in the pulley appears stationary?

[sonscar]

No,that is when that cylinder is firing,which could be anywhere if you have no marks to reference it with.There are several well trodden ways to find TDC,let google be your friend.Steve..

[Edington]

I appreciate and have set the static timing up using the usual tried and tested method but it's the dynamic timing that I'm attempting using a strobe.

[nicklouse]

You need a mark to set the timing against. Either on the flywheel or you make one for the timing cover. 

[Dusky]

If you don’t have markings on the flywheel, the easiest is to Mark TDC and then manually add degrees on your pulley. ( measure circumference, divide by 360 to find distance per degree).

[weef]

It kind of depends where you are starting from. If the engine is a runner and you just want to tweak the timing it is probably best to do it by ear and engine performance, but you have to ensure all the other engine parameters that affect the running are correct. With the engine fully up to temperature slacken the distributor clamp and rotate the distributor slightly either way until you get to a position where the engine speed rises to a maximum and then starts to drop off. This is advancing the ignition timing to an optimum point. When you hear the revs drop off retard the timing slightly, by turning the distributor back, and nip up the cramp. Road test to check engine performance and if you hear "pinking" under load retard the timing slightly and try again.

If you really want to set the timing from the crankshaft pulley using a lamp them you will have to make up your own datums. You can use the TDC marking off of the flywheel as your first point. Set the engine to TDC firing on No1 cylinder, with a piece of stiff wire make a pointer and attach it to the engine using the most convenient timing cover bolt. Stick a piece of tape, masking tape or some other type that can be easily marked with a pen on the wide section of the harmonic pulley and put a mark on it. Bend the wire so it acts as a pointer and align it with the mark on the tape. Using the flywheel markings turn the engine to align the BTDC points and mark the tape/pointer relationship on the crankshaft pulley. You now have a series of BTDC references to use for the timing light.

It really depends what you want to do, making up the datum points is time consuming and probably not worth it  but i thought I would explain a method of how you could do it, personally I would just set it by ear. 

[Ethel]

Take it your strobe doesn't have an advance setting adjuster?

[Edington]

Thanks guys, I'll take onboard all your comments.