She's Runnin again!

[Kyle844]

so i started the thread about my motor making a big bang and it dying, now its alive again! i started out by turning the motor over a couple times and along with the strain there was an odd ticking noise that was coming from the back of the motor. i then went to checkin plugs, they were fine. no damage, just a little black. then pulled my valve covers and inspected the rocker arms and pushrods. nothing out of the ordinary. i figure, hey why not swap out my distributer because i think thats whats ticking. so i got my spare, threw it in and no more straining or ticking! (also converted back to stock igniton instead of my MSD box because it wasn't starting at all with my MSD pluged in) now i just had to set the timing! took awhile because of no timing light but its pretty close. take it to the shop tomorrow to get it dialed in. My conclusion as to why it went bang was that some little :mad:$%^&*#:mad: flicked my master disconnect switch, messed up my MSD ignition, cylinder filled up with unburned fuel and BAM! sound like a decent conclusion? i'm pretty proud of myself because i got this done all by myself with out old people's help haha :D:D:D

[1977stroked]

Glad you got it worked out!!

[Kyle844]

Glad you got it worked out!!

yes i was bummed i'd have to pull the motor because i JUST started workin again and have no $$

[bobbotroncfh]

How do you dial in the timing at home? I have a timing light, but it didn't really come with instructions. All I've done so far is use it as a light and that's it. What's the rest?

[Kyle844]

I timed it by ear. =] It'll last til i get it to the shop tomorrow. But if i had my light i would do it like this: since my battery is in the trunk i would hooked the power clamp onto my alt power wire. ground clamp on a carb. stud and the other clamp onto my #1 spark plug wire. point the timing light at my harmonic balancer and pull the trigger. it shows a line on the balancer which SHOULD be close to the timing tab on the Timing chain cover. then loosen and turn your distributer left or right until you got the right timing.

Thats how i'd do it. correct me if i'm wrong anyone!

[novaboy009]

Rev it up until it stops advancing and set total timing to 36 degrees or so. Initial doesn't really matter other than smoothing the idle out. You can change the rate of the advancing (all in at 2500, 3000, 4000 etc) by changing the two little advance springs under the rotor that pull the weights apart. You can increase initial timing while keeping the total locked out by decreasing the slot (this is more challenging).

Kev

[ALLT4]

Please don't tell people "Initial doesn't really matter other than smoothing the idle out." This is just not true and I'm tired of seeing this fallacy, suppose you only have 20 degrees or less of total timing to work with, now you're telling people that might have high compression motors that 16 degrees or more of initial advance is just fine. Meanwhile the the motor is detonating itself to death under load.

Only each individual combination knows what it can live with for initial timing, timing is a function of initial up to full advance not just total.