[ryanb]

Hello all, so the other day i replaced the o ring on the distributor housing that bolts on the engine. I noticed that when i started the engine again it missed a little. it then seemed to tidy itself up, so i took it for a drive after 10mins of running fine it just lost all power and stopped. Is it possible to mess up the timing just from taking the distributor housing of the back of the engine?

Other points......car wouldn't roll start, it is getting spark, carby shooting seemingly excess fuel out the top when i took the air box off. turns over fires a little but won't start.

Please help!

[Gwagensteve]

Yep, you've messed up the timing.

[AckerDackerly]

When you pulled the distributor off the back of the engine, the mesh angle of the right-angle gear teeth caused the rotor to turn as you extracted it. This also occurs when one removes the top of the distributor from the lower part of the distributor housing.

At this point, here is what you need to do:

0. disconnect the Positive connector on the battery to be safe.

1. remove the valve cover.

2. remove ONLY the #1 sparkplug and it's wire - the one at the front of the engine.

3. use a 17mm socket on the bolt on the end of the crankshaft to gently turn the crankshaft clockwise until you see that both valves are closed on #1 cylinder. The rocker arms will be all the way up at the valve end. The associated cam lobes will be pointing down.

4. gently stick a long shaft screwdriver - or better, a wooden skewer for making kabobs - down the sparkplug hole.

5. continue to slowly turn the crankshaft until the screwdriver (or wooden skewer) stops rising out of the sparkplug hole. Do not let the screwdriver/skewer bind up! You will only need to turn the crank slightly as you are probably almost at Top Dead Center

At this point you will have Top Dead Center ignition on cylinder #1.

6. remove the distributor cap but DO NOT REMOVE THE SPARKPLUG WIRES!. Note exactly where the #1 sparkplug wire point is on the distributor cap as it would be installed. The goal at this point is to make the rotor in the center of the distributor point just ahead of the #1 wire point on the distributor cap.

7. remove the adjuster bolt on the side of the distributor and gently pull the distributor out of the housing.

8. rotate the distributor shaft and re-insert the distributor so that, when completely reseated, the rotor points at wire #1 and the adjuster bolt sits at the middle of it's adjustment range. This may take several attempts to get it exactly right. You will have a bit of fudge factor with the range of the adjuster bolt and the slot it sits in but the closer you get the better things will be..

9. When you think you are close enough, firmly reinstall the adjuster bolt, install the distributor cap, remove the skewer/screwdriver, reinstall the sparkplug and wire, reinstall the valve cover and remove the socket from the crankshaft.

10. reconnect the positive terminal to the battery.

If you are close to where your timing should be, the engine will run and you'll be able to fine tune the timing by loosening the adjuster bolt and rotating the distributor for proper timing.

Older Vits and SJs have a jumper that you must place in a connector near the battery to disable the ECM for proper timing advance setting. If this is the case with your vehicle, be sure to install this jumper before setting the spark timing. Remove the jumper after you are done.

If this sounds too complicated, time to grab a 6-pack of beer (or maybe a 24-can case...), order up a pizza and call some friends over for some wrenching.

The lesson to be learned here is to mark the position of all moving/adjustable parts of the distributor before any disassembly. Doing so will allow you to easily and precisely re-install everything properly afterwards.

I hope that this helps!

[ryanb]

wow thanks heaps........yes a lot of beers seem in order!

[ryanb]

so i finally got a day off work and had a look at the timing following AckerDackerlys steps (thanks heaps!). I got the engine to TDC and this is where the dizzy points....any thoughts?
http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q56 ... jessza.jpg

[AckerDackerly]

The main question I have:

If you place the distributor cap on, can you visualise the tip of the rotor pointing directly at the the #1 sparkplug terminal on the inside of the distributor cap?

If so, you have it right!

The adjuster isn't exactly in the center, but I think you have enough adjustment to make it happen.


To make things easy, I would mark the position of the rotor as it sits BEFORE proceeding to an attempt to run the engine Take a piece of masking tape and stick it to the side of the distributor housing and mark the exact point where the rotor is pointing.

If you think you are not quite there, you can hand-turn the crankshaft until the distributor rotor points to the mark to re-establish Ignition TDC. Once this is done, you can pull the top of the distributor off and re-install it at a new (and hopefully better) position, put a new tape on the side of the distributor and mark it again - then try to set the spark setting again.

Once you are done, you can remove the masking tape mark.

I hope that this helps!