A friend and I were setting the ignition timing on my malibu with an adjustable gun and it was reading 60 degrees advanced at idle. I had only ajusted it by ear before that. We though that maybe it was a tooth off, so we moved it up a tooth, same, one tooth retartded, same thing. Then we pulled the #1 plug and brought it to TDC. I had checked the timing pointer the week before when the heads were off, when I could see that the piston was at TDC, and it was correct. Same thing, so at that point we gave up and set it by ear and called it a night. A few days later I checked it with someone elses non-adjustable gun and the mark was showing on the other side of the water pump. When I had put the cam the crank gear dot was up, and the cam gear dot was down, like everyone says you're supposed to. I really can't figure out why it's giving me this crazy reading. Any ideas what it could be?

 

put the gears i nand the chaine on dot to dot because it's easier to see and line up then you spin the crank so the crank is dot up and the cam is dot up #1 piston at tdc and rotor pointing to #1 post on distributor cap. you shouldn't listen to what "everyone" tells you

 

Thanks for the reply ede, but I'm still confused. I also thought the cam timing might have been causing the problem, but when I pulled the #1 plug and brought it to TDC, I pulled the valve cover and both valves were closed. It seems as though the motor is running strong, so could something be that far off and still feel fine? The people I was referring to as "everyone" are a Master Technician and another experienced tech who runs an 8 second camaro, that both work with me at a Chrysler/Jeep dealership, so I didn't really doubt them. Could the gun be picking up the spark signal from another cylinder if the wires are too close? I have the good MSD wires. If the cam timing is off tht much, what would the motor feel like?

 

could be a bad timing lite, msd boxes have been known to mess up or to cause a lot of lights to not work. my high dollar snap on light won't work with msd boxs so i bought a cheap on from sears that seems to work just fine. try another light

 

Yeap, MSD says that in there manual. It mentioned that a lot of dial backs go nuts.
My dial back equus from Checker Auto seems to work good with 6 box.

I don't even think you could start a motor @ 60* idle?


BTW: make sure your vacuum advance is pluged while timing.

Ron

 

Just one tooth off on the cam sprocket = 8.18° valve timing change.