HISSIN50 said:How do you know what the timing is if you dont have a timing light?
ss93cobra said:except it won't for a fuel injected car
Sounds like it should work to me. Just be sure to pull the SPOUT out when you set it and put it back in when you finish.QDRHRSE said:The only way I know of involves a vacuum gauge. Do you have one of those? If so, set the timing to where ever you have the most vacuum at idle. That works pretty well for carb'd cars.
That is how I would do it. But it can be off by a handful of degrees or more doing it like this. A light is the only way to fine tune it.Speed_Demon1965 said:I've never tried this, but I wonder how close it would be if you were to set the harmonic balancer so the 10° mark was on the pointer. Then, set the rotor so it's pointing to the #1 terminal on the cap.
HISSIN50 said:That is how I would do it. But it can be off by a handful of degrees or more doing it like this. A light is the only way to fine tune it.
8950HO said:Without a timing light it`s difficult,make sure the distributor is installed correctly/accurately in the first place.
Sometimes in a pinch if the distributor has been moved and you don`t have a timing light handy,you can go by "ear".
What I mean is if any of you have used a timing light while moving the distributor around,if you retard the timing the engine starts to slow down and sound like crap,whereas if you start to advance the distributor/timing the engine runs more normally and sounds better,(a fine line),so you can generally tell by moving the distributor around and going by the sound of the engine to get a temporary setting until you can get a light and set it correctly.
If what I just said seems hard to understand,mark your timing spec on the damper and use a timing light,then advance/retard the timing and you`ll hear what I mean,at idle speed that is.
Timing light is the only proper way to do it, but I was just wondering if that would be a good start for someone who has no access for a timing light for a little while or something.HISSIN50 said:That is how I would do it. But it can be off by a handful of degrees or more doing it like this. A light is the only way to fine tune it.
Yeah bud - you are right. That is how I would do it, even with a light.Speed_Demon1965 said:Timing light is the only proper way to do it, but I was just wondering if that would be a good start for someone who has no access for a timing light for a little while or something.
HISSIN50 said:Bud, I am not sure why you quoted me. It seems we are in agreement. Stabbing the dizzy only gets you in the ballpark (unless one is just lucky).
I would add that in my experience, the 'ear method' works much much better with carb'd vehicles (you have obviously had better luck than I). EFI can compensate, which means one can actually run the dizzy a good ways either way w/o huge issues. In the process, the puter compensates the idle, etc, making it hard to know where one is at. Carb'd stuff was easy to do this method with - the car would start to idle like poop.
fiveofanatic said:The base timing is at 45-55?
"Stabbing the dizzy"? Are we talking about a car or some bimbo at happy hour?
Damn, I'm getting really old.
8950HO said:Without a timing light it`s difficult,make sure the distributor is installed correctly/accurately in the first place.
Sometimes in a pinch if the distributor has been moved and you don`t have a timing light handy,you can go by "ear".
What I mean is if any of you have used a timing light while moving the distributor around,if you retard the timing the engine starts to slow down and sound like crap,whereas if you start to advance the distributor/timing the engine runs more normally and sounds better,(a fine line),so you can generally tell by moving the distributor around and going by the sound of the engine to get a temporary setting until you can get a light and set it correctly.
If what I just said seems hard to understand,mark your timing spec on the damper and use a timing light,then advance/retard the timing and you`ll hear what I mean,at idle speed that is.
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