I checked my timing this weekend with a timing light, and if I'm correct, my timing is WAY off. I attached a little graphic of what I saw. It's a rough representation of my timing marker. The top being the passengers side, the bottom the drivers side, the left side is the front of the car (and the balancer with the timing mark on it) The horizontal line is the location of my timing mark. If I'm not mistaken, that's actually after top dead center isn't it? This is on an 88 5.7L GTA. I did disconnect the brown connector that goes to the distributor. I had the timing light clipped to Cylinder 1. There's nothing I have to do to the ALDL connector to check my timing is there? Am I wrong in reading my timing? My timing is supposed to be set at 6*btdc. Which mark would this be at?

 

Looks like your timing is retarded about about 8 degrees. Loosen the distributor bolt and turn the dist counterclockwise slightly until your mark lines up with 6 btdc on the tab(which would be the top side on your drawing.

 

That's what I thought. So 6*btdc is the very top mark? I thought it would be the 2nd or 3rd mark down, or is the 3rd mark down 0*?

 

The large v in the tab should be 0. Three marks to the left should be 6 btdc. Get some sandpaper or a piece of brillo pad and clean the tab, you should be able to read the numbers. The scale goes up to 12 degrees or so.