Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:25:57 -0700
Reply-To: Tom Young <tomyoung1@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Young <tomyoung1@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: PLEASE HELP!!!.... TIMING ISSUES ON NEW ENGINE
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
It sounds like the distributor drive gear didn't get dropped into the
crankcase correctly.
What you want to do is get a cylinder - any cylinder really - at TDC of the
compression stroke and then look at where your distributor rotor is
pointing, i.e., which cylinder it's getting ready to "fire." You can then
remove the distributor, with the rotor still pointing at the same place, and
check the orientation of the distributor drive dog. Compare that to the
orientation of the distributor drive gear and you know how you need to
adjust it.
Remove all the spark plugs so you can easily turn the engine over by hand.
I find it easiest to get #4 at TDC of the compression stroke because I can
stand at the rear of the vehicle, turn the engine over by hand, and watch
the action of the #4 piston and valves through the spark plug hole. (Use a
flashlight to see what's going on down at the bottom of the spark plug
hole.) Turn the engine over a few times and you'll find you can see the
piston move up to TDC and then back down. You can move the engine back and
forth and watch the piston move over TDC. If you turn the engine over
several times you can also watch the valves move "down" (i.e., toward the
crank) and back up. At one point the piston will be at TDC with the exhaust
valve open. At another point the piston will be at TDC with the valves
closed; this is TDC of the compression stroke.
If you have someone to help you can do this on the #1 cylinder - which is
probably the safest thing to do if you're unsure of what's going on - but I
find it harder to see well down the #1 spark plug hole.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549 '82 Westfalia
---------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "jesse johnson" <jjmojo@BLAZENET.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 5:49 PM
Subject: PLEASE HELP!!!.... TIMING ISSUES ON NEW ENGINE
> Hey All,
> Got ready to start up the new engine.. and nothing .. not even a slight
> sign of starting and then a big backfire... and i mean big! so i assume
> the timing is way off.
> My question is this.. I have the top dead center mark on the pulley
> lined up with the case half. But the distributor drive gear is not as
> the bentley shows it. It off by about a quarter turn.
> Also.. i can spin the pulley around once more and the TDC mark on the
> pulley is lined up with the case again.. but the distributor is set to
> fire the number 3 cylinder.
> How can you be sure the number one cylinder is ready to fire? And if
> the distributor drive gear is off.. does it matter? as long as i can
> make the number one cylinder firing while the pulley is set to TDC?
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