[Healeys] BJ8 timing is way off what do I do now?

Jorge Garcia fortee9er at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 19 08:48:42 MDT 2010


I have not been able to start my BJ8 since last year when I replaced the starter. The engine cranks, the spark plugs fire, there is fuel in the carbs and fuel lines but the car refuses to start. This has been a problem that has plagued my car since I bought it many years ago.
I decided to go for the basics and try to set timing manually and remove the valve cover to check valve clearance as I rotated the engine.
I connected a lamp at the coil and the grounded the other side. I rotated the engine by hand to TDC - crank pulley mark matched up to timing indicator on timing case. Turned ignition on and the light did not come on. I rotated the engine to 10 deg BTDC (with ignition still on) and the light still did not come on. I started rotating the engine clockwise until the light came on. This happened when the crank pulley mark was approximately 2" past TDC.
My question to the group is does this mean that cam timing is off (way off) because of a problem with the timing chain which I suspect is the original with 80k miles on it. Or is the distributor stuck in wrong? The distributor was rebuilt a couple of years ago and reinstalled by my mechanic. It did run after that but it was always very difficult to start.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Jorge 
PS - The points were replaced with a Pertronix unit a few years ago.


More information about the Healeys mailing list