i was finally going to time my car the other night and discovered that the original harmonic balancer had come apart and the outer part was backed up against some hard lines (didn't damage the lines too bad). anyway... i put on a new balancer and went to time the car again.. and the timing mark on the balancer does not get close to the timing tab. i can advance the dist. as much as possible and the mark on the balacer is pretty much at 12- 1:00, and the timing tab is at about 2:00. i am sure that i hooked up my timing light on the #1 wire. what could be causing this?? i called o'reilly's and double checked that they got me the right balancer. any ideas???

 

the timing tab on a 305 is supposed to be at 12 o'clock
you prob have the wrong timing chain cover and tab

 

The problem is you moved the distributor before getting a useable combination of damper and timing tab. Now you'll hafta do alot of extra work.

 

like what?... if the dist. is off a tooth would it cause this? i had to pull the dist because the car wouldn't run at all and i replaced the pickup coil thinking that could be my problem. i am not affraid of work, so if you could fill me in on what needs to be done that would be great.

 

if the tab was at 12:00 there is no way you could time the car because there is too much stuff in the way (waterpump). i could barely see the mark on the balancer when it was at 12:00. the tab is welded to the cover and i am pretty sure they are original. it is in about the only place where you could actually see it to time the car.

 

At this point you have 2 options. I is compare your damper, for yourself, with one on another third gen, same year and number of cylinders as yours, to be sure the clocking of the timing mark is in the same place relative to the keyway to the crank snout. The other is a piston stop that screws in through the spark plug hole to re-establish TDC for the piston in cyl. #1. If you didn't turn the crank while the distributor was out, Then it's hard to be one tooth off, because the dizzy usually won't go all the way back in one tooth off, unless you first turn the oilpump driveshaft slightly, with a long straight screwdriver. However, once you resolve the damper and tab issue and KNOW where TDC is, then you'll be able to tell if you're 1 tooth off, or not. Still, You must've pulled the dizzy before making sure cyl. 1 was at TDC, or you woulda caught the damper before loosening the dizzy clamp. That woulda saved you a lot of trouble.

 

on my 91 rs you have to shoot the timing behind the water pump

 

is this something that i can pick up at the parts store?? sorry if it's a dumb question.. i have never had to do anything like this before. thanks.

 

i don't suppose anyone on here can get a pic of a balancer that came off of a third gen with a 5.0 tpi?? ... please!???