The timing gauge or mark whatever it's called is missing from my car. I put a new distributor in because the pick up blew apart on the old one. I set the new dist. about where the original one was and tweeked it one way or the other little by little until it ran the best, but now the car is throwing a code 15 which i don't think has anything to do with the timing,(it's for the coolant temp sens.). also the car starts up and idles ok but as soon as i give it any gas it stalls. any help is appreciated. thanks.

The timing mark on the damper may be buried under a layer of road grime, but it's there. The timing tab is down behind the water pump. To set the timing, you have to undo the tan wire with the black stripe, it's got a connector high up on the passenger side of the engine bay, towards the rear.

thats what is missing on my car. so now how do i adjust the timing.

this is where its supposed to be right?

sorry about that....

no, you're still looking in the traditional location. It's not at the 2:30 position, where you're looking, it's at the 12:00 position. When I said down, I meant down from directly above.

how am i supposed to get to 12:00 when the water pump blocks that off? i looked as best i can and found no tab at 12:00. thanks for your advice

see?

well i bought an aftermarket bolt on timing tab for the 2:30 position so we'll see how that works. thanks

thats not going to work. it will give you the wrong timing, you have to time it at the 12 oclock position
or if you must time the motor from the 2:30 position you need a balancer that is marked for that timing position

ok i am getting mutliple people telling me two different things. How would i get a timing light on the 12:00 position anyway?

The timing tab "should" be behind the water pump as said, I think it's more like the 1 O'clock position standing at the front of the engine, and it's not easy to get a timing light in there, I have to stand on my toes and reach over to get to it, but if it's really not there you can put a timing tab ANYWHERE you want to as long as you locate the exact TDC of #1 cylinder by using a piston stop or some other device and then making a new TDC mark on the balancer that lines up with the 0 on the tab. Here is a pic of my engine showing the timing tab with the red arrow pointing to it, excuse the 200,000 miles of grease!!!

On my TPI i have coolant lines and sensors, not to mention the 4" air intake that are all in the way. Plus i did crawl under the car and got my hand up where you show the tab and there is definately not a tab there. I think i will have to make a new mark on my balancer thanks for the help.