timing belt and timing question ....

[Bubonik]

hey

you guys always seem to have the answers i need, so here goes !

 

my friend and i changed my oil pump seals {no more tick !}

and timing belts {'cause we were in there}

and we noticed while putting on the belts

the timing hole on the drivers side had a white mark on it

and the tooth right beside it {to the left}

also had a mark on it

we had a really hard time getting the drivers side to stay lined up as we were tightening the tensioner pulley

 

is this normal ?

 

also we noticed whom ever had worked on the car before

had adjusted the ignition timing all the way to one side

{clockwise as far as it would go}

after we did the belts

it would ping under load

 

i arbitrarily put the distributor close to the middle

and the ping seemed to go away

 

but it does seem a little rough ....

 

now do you think this is my ignition timing that needs to be corrected ?

{will do in the next few days}

or do you think that we missed a tooth when doing the belts ?

 

it seemed to run smoother before

just really ticky

now it doesn't tick but ......

 

any help or suggestions would be great !!!!

 

thanks !

[erik litchy]

you just cant set timing like that. it will run better if you set it as per the sticker under the hood

[robaru]

Ditto Erik. Timing light is the way.

[Bubonik]

I plan to use the light as soon as i get a chance

 

but considering where it was when i started, anything is better

 

i will touch base when i get the ignition timing done

 

i just thought it was weird that the distributor was ALL the way to one end

seemed fishy ....

 

also:

 

does anyone knoe how many degrees the distributor will go ?

from dead centre to one end

is how many degrees ?

[rallyruss]

never tried it but I would guess the whole dist adj. range probably covers almost 30 degrees.

you may have gone on a tooth off on one or both belts. the disty may have been installed incorrectly before? off a tooth there? pull the outer covers and verify that you got the belts on properly in relation to the timing belt mark on the flywheel. then check that the disty rotor is pointing at #1 when the motor is on #1 tdc.

just check the basics first.

[Snowman]

Your ignition timing really needs to be set with a light.

 

I've had a hard time getting the belts lined up before, but generally it's pretty straightforward. It seems odd that one of the cams was off a tooth (if that was the case) and it ran well. I screwed up last year and had one cam off a bit, and it idled okay but ran like absolute crap under load.

[Bubonik]

thanks for the input

 

i'll do my ignition timing tonight or tomorrow and touch base again

to ask more questions if need be

 

30 degrees !?!

 

i hope someone just messed it up before

and i can make it work without tearing it apart .......

 

would it even run that far out ?

[rallyruss]

thanks for the input

 

i'll do my ignition timing tonight or tomorrow and touch base again

to ask more questions if need be

 

30 degrees !?!

 

i hope someone just messed it up before

and i can make it work without tearing it apart .......

 

would it even run that far out ?

 

the whole range is close to 30 degrees. but if you just brought it back to center then thats only like 15.

 

yes timing is best set with a light but in a pinch you can do it by vacume or ear/feel.

[breaffyaviation]

Go back and check your belts again. Assuming your belts were on right before you changed them ,your distributor should have finished up in its original position.If the distributor moved ,then you are out a tooth.Timing an engine by ear went out with the model T.If you still have the same gas in your tank that you had before the operation,and you now have a pinking noise,it spells timing.

Good luck,I very successfully screwed up mine the first time.

Jude

[Bubonik]

Well thank you everyone for your input

 

turns out i had set the timing to about 28 degrees btdc

and that was almost dead centre on the distributor

i can't believe it even ran all the way to one end like it was

{was around something like 40 or more??}

 

seems better now

still not the same as before i did all this

but we'll see when i drive it around some more

 

so now i set it to 20 degrees BTDC

i hope thats right

thats what i found in my Subaru owners manual

 

now if i go a degree or two either way

what difference will that make ?

which way is more pep ?

if any is possible ?

 

i don't need more power

just would like a little more pep

i'm happy with it as it is if i can't get more

{it goes thats a start !}

 

thanks again for your input

[MorganM]

Sounds like previouse owner had the belts on a tooth off; just cranked the dizzy all the way to make it work. Now that you put on the belts properly the timing was WAY too advanced; which is why you had to put it back to the middle. That's about where it should be and I think you are on the right track now.

 

Advancing the timing would increase the 'pep'. Try just tow degrees at a time. Advance 2, drive around, see how it feels under load and advance or retard as you feel necessary. Also note if you advance it heavily you might want to run premium fuel for the higher octane rating.