Timing light sporadics and timing question.

Is sporadics even a word?

Anyway.. I meant to post on this earlier but it slipped my mind. While re-timing my engine we had some trouble with the timing light. Actually we had the same trouble from 3 different ones.

When I hooked the light up and set it on the pulley the pulse was very erratic at times. It would fire steadily then hang for a second, or pulse slowly 3 or 4 times then hang then pulse normally again.. Sometimes it would pulse out of time.. The mark would jump a few inches from time to time etc etc.

Having never used a timing light I have no idea what that means.. Was this just some flub or common issue or could it denote some type of ignition problem? I check the lights connection to the battery several times and made sure it was firmly clamped on the #1 spark plug wire. I also seperated the wire from the others in the loom to make sure it wasnt picking up the other wires somehow. Nothing I did effected it at all.

Ok, and on to timing.. Again. I know those of you who have helped me with this problem are tired of my posts on timing and I apologize but I have one last thing to clarify.

When I set up the timing and reinstall the distributer, I do so with the TDC ("0" on my balancer) right? I get the engine at TDC and use the distributer to get the 10-14* advance I want? A mechanic at the ford dealership I took the truck to told me to time it at the 10* mark on the balancer when I reinstalled the distributer.. That didnt sound right to me but he was the mechanic and (as most have noticed by now) amazingly inept at certain aspects of engine work so I listened.. My truck still runs like ass which leads me to beleive the guy was wrong.

Spout was disconnected while setting the timing.

I'm gonna buy a timing light in the next couple days and redo the timing from the ground up again.

Accell 8mm wires. I'll test the light on other wires and see how that does. I tried 3 seperate lights on the truck when I had it at the shop, so I know it wasnt the light itself. All three did the same thing.

And by running odd, its soft. The engine doesnt have any snap to it. It also has no low or high end acceleration but mid peddle is just fine. Like taking off from a light, the engine will sometimes bog way down (Im pretty sure its flooding out) before getting over itself and if I give it heavy gas the engine will hesitate before beginning to pick up and when it does finally start its mediocre. Just normal mid peddle, mid RPM driving and its fine. Accelerates and responds fine. Its also running extremely rich. The exhuast will gag you and when I pulled the #1 plug the other day it was completely coated in gas.

Ive checked for vacuum leaks. The plugs are brand new and properly gapped. The coil should be good. In truth I dont know if they fail slowly. All the ones Ive known to go bad just *poof* and no longer work but I suppose its possible the coil could be firing, but not doing so very well. Distributer, cap and rotor are all in fine shape and the wires are good, as near as I can tell.

I think I'll pull the plugs one by one today and check them.. Maybe from it running so rich some are fouled and need to be sprayed off and cleaned a little. I also want to see if all the cylinders are running as rich as #1 is. You could swim in the gas that thing has in it.

I pulled some codes but they were mostly operator errors. I didnt cycle the O/D button, dmessed up on the WOT tests etc.

I did get these two:

157 - MAF Below Minimum Voltage. (KOEOff)
311 - Air Injection System Inop. Bank 1.


My alternator is operating as it should. The voltage is fine and the pins are making good contact on the MAF sensor so I dunno about the minimum voltage.. and the 311.. I havent the slightest idea.