Fergie
You may have your distributor 180 degrees out - try putting the piston
for pot number 4 at TDC with both its valves closed and check which pot
the distributor arm is trying to send the spark to as well as looking at
the timing marks- if the arm is pointing to the HT wire for pot 1 then
you can either switch the dizzy around or just swap the wires ! The
workshop manual tells you how to check everything - but you have to
remove the dizzy to look at the offset of the distributor drive - it
could also be that the drive on the dizzy itself has been assembled
incorrectly ( I don't know if this is possible though)
I remember doing something like this with my TR2 in the 1970's and
switched wires around to make it work! For timing the swinging around
of the dizzy to get the fastest RPM at fast tickover then backing off
the timing so that the revs drop by 100 is recommended by several of the
listers !!
Cheers
Brian Johnson (Loughborough UK)
1963 TR4 AFP 503A (UK) / IZS 733(USA) - CT27216-L (now not L but O )
1954 TR2 46 BHX TS554-O UK Car in pieces
1989 Vauxhall Cavalier 2.0 GLI - Eurobox but it goes !
Internet b.johnson@lycosmail.com
Website http://websites.diamond.co.uk/~b.johnson/index.htm
Fergie wrote:
>
> HELP! I'm having a tough time getting my car to run properly. Took me
> two weeks to get it to run at all - wound up putting the old spark plugs
> back in and it started right up! Go figure.
>
> Now, it seems obvious that my timing is WAY off...lots of missing and
> backfiring. (to all of you who are wondering, I got myself into this
> predicament by trying to fix something that wasn't broken - and now it
> is!) Keeping in mind that I really don't know much about this stuff (Oh,
> really?), a few observations...
>
> 1) I have no timing lite (and wouldn't know how to use it if I did have
> one).
> 2) My pulley was DPO-installed so that the hole is on the front side,
> not the engine side.
> 3) When I manually turn the engine so #1 piston is all the way up and
> both intake and exhaust valves are closed, the pulley hole is nowhere to
> be seen. Shouldn't it be at or near the pointer? Not sure if it's
> exactly 180 out, but it appears to be close to that. Does this mean that
> a timing lite would be of no use anyway - unless I'm willing to pull the
> front apron, radiator, etc., off the car and rotate the pulley?
>
> I've been told that the "easy" way to set timing is to set the
> distributor's vernier scale on the fourth notch and turn the distributor
> through it's range until, at some point, the correct timing will
> magically make itself evident. So far, the thing runs like a tank. Idle
> not bad, but as soon as I try to give it any gas, I'm afraid I'm gonna
> blow a hole in a piston or muffler or something.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions or know where I can find idiot-proof
> instructions? I'd appreciate it as, so far, I don't think I can even
> make it to a mechanic (much less to Portland!) without a tow truck!
>
> Thanks VERY much.
>
> --
> Michael Ferguson
> Vernon CT
> 1959 TR3A TS53990L
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