My timing has a little retard in it. I've been wondering how do you adjust it? Thanx
Wes

 

Well kick the little retard out...

Look on the bottom side of your hood and see if you have a label or two... one of them should give the timing spec and explain everythign..

If not, find the EST, its a tan wire with a black stripe ont he main wiring harness. Usually its just above the heater box. Disconnect it. Connect a timing light to + - and around the #1 plug wire, fire up the car and point the timing light at the timing marker... I wanna say stock timing is 6* but to be honest I'm not sure. If its not right, loosen the hold down bolt (9/16) and turn the distributor slowly to get the correct setting.

 

Thanx, I'll have to try it

 

BTW when you're finished reconnect the wire and disconnect the battery for 30 seconds to 5 minutes to reset the codes since having the EST disconnected will set a code in the ecm.

 

Another thing is to do this on a warm engine. I tried to adjust mine cold one day and it gave me some funky results.

 

one stupid question here, when adjusting the timing, which way is advance on the timing marker and which is retard. from zero, which way up or down the balenser does it go

 

You want to be on the passenger side of the timing marker, its the longer side, the biggest 'valley' (0`) seperates the two sides I describe. I belive the increments are 2` from valley to peak on the tab. Stock setting is 6`.

 

I'm not sure when / if thirdgens chaged balancers, but on my 92 i sight the timing tab down from the driver's side top. The engine rotate clockwise when viewed from the front, so more advanced means the ignition fires sooner, so the mark will show more to the passenger side as you advance it further. As has already een stated, on a factory timing pointer, the first big gap is 0', the next high point is 4'. From there each valley / point is another 2'. The end of the balancer is 16' IIRC.

And factory spec for all TPI thirdgens is 6' btdc

 

Make sure all the wires on the distributor are on securely and all the way. Or else you might just get a peppy little shock when you reach over to rotate the distributor when that damn #3 plug wire is loose (i know from personal experience )