[6pack] TR6 timing advance

[DLylis at aol.com]

I find myself kerfluxed.  I am helping a friend sort out some running  
issues with a 70 TR6.  The car was running poorly and there appeared to be  some 
electrical gremlins, so we proceded to sort it out.  We first  established 
a baseline by determining TDC was in fact zero degrees on the damper  
markings and that the valves were properly positioned for an ignition  cycle.  We 
then set the crank for static timing and static timed the  distrbutor with a 
test light.  
Because of some electrical gremlins we had to run some external wiring  
(electric fuel pump) to make sure that all potential problems in the  harness 
were removed from the equation.  We then tried to start the  car.  No dice.  
Spark is present and fuel is present so the marriage  between the two 
(ignition timing) became suspect.  While cranking the car  over we rotated the 
distributor until the car fired and ran, tweaked the  distributor, and got it 
to idle just OK with good throttle response and  smooth run up to where we 
took it (3000 rpm).
I then put a timing light to it at about 1200 rpm and the timing  scale is 
completely off the charts.  The last number I can see is 24 and it  is about 
an inch advanced from the indicator.  My next task is to put  an advance 
timing light on it and see what the advance actually is, but I expect  it to 
be real high.  My first thoughts are that the mechanical advance in  the 
distributor is toast, but I have a few doubts about that as well.
This car is running points.  Please don't tell me to put electronics  in it 
as we took them out and put in fresh ignition parts to establish the base  
line. All ignition parts (except distributor body; mechanical advance,  
etc.) have been cross checked against alternate parts to make sure there are not 
 defective "new" parts in the equation. 
As I said, I find myself kerfluxed.  Comments?
 
David  Lylis
69 TR6 CC26160L
60 TR3A TS74461LO
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