UNTIMEABLE TIMING

pointer

New Member
Jun 24, 2006
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:bang: I am trying to adjust my timing. I noticed that the pointer and the tdc marks on the harmonic balancer do not match. I found the tdc by removing the #1 spark plug and bumping the motor until I found the compression stroke and then hand turned the motor to get the piston at the top. The timing marks are about an 1 3/4" to the right of the pointer. what are the possible reasons for this? The car is a 95 mustang gt with a 302. Its been bored 30 over and has a bigger cam, alum. heads, and some other after market parts. I bought the car about 3 months ago. The reason i'm messing with the timing is because the previous owner removed the spout and ran the car between 25 and 30 degrees advanced. This made the car start hard, but he said it ran better that way.:shrug:
 
either the pointer is bent, or the harmonic balancer has moved on the rubber isolater.. Or could be the wrong balancer...never know. Mark where TDC is on the Harmonic balnacer with a paint pen, then measure out the degrees and mark also, Or they make a tape sticker with th marks already on it. Then adjust your timing.
 
Thanks for your reply. I was thinking that maybe the timeing chain was off a tooth or 180 degrees if thats possible. Also a friend of mine has a mustang with a 302, he said, (after comparing our #1 positioning on the distributer caps), that the distributor might be off a tooth. I moved the distributor to where the #1 faced the #1 cylinder after bringing the #1 piston to the top on the compression stroke. The tdc marks where closer to the pointer but i still couldn't time it right. It did start and run not to bad in both distributor positions. Does anyone know the process from the bigging to get your distributor in the right place and where the #1 should be facing.
 
pointer said:
I was thinking that maybe the timeing chain was off a tooth or 180 degrees if thats possible.
That's exactly what I was thinking. BTW, running without the spout just doesnt sound right to me. Maybe the previous owner was also running with some advance at the timing chain.

I'm kinda wondering how you know that your timing mark is off. I mean, turning the dizzy should allow you to bring it to 0 degrees advance, or 10 or whatever (assuming you don't run into clearance issues) depending on how far you turn it. But I'm just a hack so what the hell do i know.
 
Your hb has seperated and spun on itself

OR

The complete hb has spun on the crank snout

Cam, dizzy, or t chain can't have anything to do with this issue as its purely a mechanical fixed connection with the crank, #1 rod/piston, and hb which is locked in correct position by woodruf key on the crank snout.

Grady