well i went to check my timing for the hell of it cause my car has been running like crap at anything above 3000 rpm and im checking the timing and i notice the indicator is all the way to the right of any of the dots....... im pretty sure the dots indicate 5 degrees each right? but the indicator pointer isnt even near the dots at idle it sort of looks like this:
----------------\/0 0 0 0 0 0
shouldnt it be reading 20 degrees at idle and look like this:
----\/ 0 0 0 0 0 0
maybe im jsut completely off but any help would be appreciated
timing problem?
each of those dots are supposed to read 5 degrees and the count starts from -5 degrees. Surprisingly I fixed this problem on my buddy's DOHC yesterday. I'm also assuming you've got a timing light, 10mm socket, and a philips head screwdriver. I'm also assuming that you have tried rotating the base of the distributor and hit one of those ends that limit the movement of the distributor. If you haven't done that, then try it and fix your timing accordingly. If not then here's what I did.
Get down to the rotor of your distributor. rotate your crank pulley to the second mark to set you to 0 degrees, when you hit tdc, you'll also see the distributor point to the front of the car. If it isn't then try again and get as close as possible. what we had to do was pull the distributor and adjust it till we had a bit more space for adjusting the distributor than before. just moved it over like a tooth or two, nothing major since that one or two teeth allows for alot of adjustment.
Get down to the rotor of your distributor. rotate your crank pulley to the second mark to set you to 0 degrees, when you hit tdc, you'll also see the distributor point to the front of the car. If it isn't then try again and get as close as possible. what we had to do was pull the distributor and adjust it till we had a bit more space for adjusting the distributor than before. just moved it over like a tooth or two, nothing major since that one or two teeth allows for alot of adjustment.
When standing at the front of the car, and looking at the crankshaft pulley, 20 degrees is the mark on the far right of the pulley. Line up the timing mark with that and be done. Make sure you have the TPS disconnected and your idle is around 700-750 before you set the timing, or it will still be off.