timing problem

Suspect

Active Member
Aug 25, 2004
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i bought a light to time my car, hooked it up and nothing. no flashing, no light at all. so i returned it. tonight someone let me hold theirs. tried again and nothing happened. now thats twice. no way its the timing light, i have to be doing something wrong. it is my 1st time trying to do this, but i followed all the directions. im confused. what could i be doing wrong?
 
What kind of timing light are you using? Most are inductive and there will be an arrow in the inductive clip (the thing that slides over the #1 spark plug wire). be sure the arrow is facing the correct way.

Otherwise, if you have that connection made and the leads on the positive and neg battery cables, you should be good to go. The car does run and everything, right?

More info would help. Good luck.
 
The car was running right? lol, j/k.

Make sure the positive and negative cables on the timing light are hooked up to their respective battery terminals. Then the lead wire needs to be clamped over the #1 plug wire. That's it, are you forgetting to do something?
 
And pull the trigger! LOL just kidding. (I'm sure you did that)

Anyway, maybe you are not getting a good contact with the clips.

BTW - Hissin50 and Chris - I thought you were supposed to do the red clip to the red terminal, and the black clip to a ground (NOT to the black terminal - for safety). Is that wrong?
 
GRGT1994 said:
And pull the trigger! LOL just kidding. (I'm sure you did that)

:rlaugh: :lol:

GRGT1994 said:
Anyway, maybe you are not getting a good contact with the clips.

BTW - Hissin50 and Chris - I thought you were supposed to do the red clip to the red terminal, and the black clip to a ground (NOT to the black terminal - for safety). Is that wrong?

I've always hooked both cables up to the battery. I haven't gotten electricuted yet. At least, not from the timing light, lol.
 
I thought the concern with connecting to both terminals was one of potential batter explosion, not electricution (that's always possible). Meh, what the hell do I know?
 
GRGT1994 said:
I thought the concern with connecting to both terminals was one of potential batter explosion, not electricution (that's always possible). Meh, what the hell do I know?

Well I was just using electricution as an example to show nothing bad has happened yet. I guess I should say, (in my best Texan accent) I ain't got blowed up yet!! :D
 
The battery hook-up concern is very true for jump-starting batteries. But for a very low-draw item like a timing light, I have not heard of it being a concern (which certainly does not mean it is not true and/or not a good idea. If grounding the light remotely works, I would keep doing it. Extra safe).