i just bought a new timing gun from pep boys and i went to try and use it and im prettys ure i hooked it up right but i cant see anything coming from the timing gun when i point it at the balancer i put the clip as close to the spark plug on the wire as possible and the clips are connected to the batery in the right spots...what am i doing wrong?

 

The light isn't blinking at all?? Try some different wires (its okay to put it up by the distributor)... Make sure the inductive clamp is fully closed around the wire..

Don't forget to unplug the EST once you get your timing light (or ignition system) working properly to set base timing..

 

the pickup goes as close to the #1 plug as you can get it safely. then pos/neg goes to the terminals on the battery. start the car and let it heat up to operating condition, then pull the EST wire. this wire is located above the passenger side wheel well, one little tan wire in a weatherpack connector. set timing to wherever you want it (go in 1-2* incriments) and then turn the car off and plug the EST back in. Start the car back up and see how it runs. If it's pinging, retard it 2* or so.


Clockwise = retard
Counter-Clockwise = advance

 

you can clip the pickup wire on the coil wire to check to see if the bulb is working properly.

 

i did all the i disconected that wire...the car runs iv been driving it but i never timed it right...what do u mean by base timing

 

i jsut figured it out the directions had a picture of how i was suposed to clip onto the wire and it was completly wrong i didnt have the clip fully closed thanx for your help

 

whats a good way to tell if its timed right? i have a wored motor and had a chip burnt and the guy told me to run it at 6* btdc and then retard it if its not running right?

 

I'm not sure exactly how to use a timing light myself as I never used one.

but the way I ended up timing my car was by two different methods.
the first one was using a vacuum gauge. I ran the car and advanced the timing till it reached the highest vacuum then retarded the timing about 2" of vacuum

the other way I used to time the car was just advance it a little by little then drive around with a good load at around 1800-2200rpms using quite a bit of throttle see if I get pinging if so retard a tad. if not pinging advance a little more.