I have a 1988 4runner with a 3.0

A few months ago I was driving it on the highway and it just died on me. I had it towed to my warehouse where it sat because I haven't had any time until recently to figure out what was wrong with it.

Upon inspection I found that the distributor had seized and the gear on the end of the shaft spun down out of the way. I got a new distributor and got it installed. After I installed it I tried to time it and could not get it to time to 10 degrees advance for anything. I have moved the distributor shaft back and forth on the teeth of the cam and with it in one position I can get the timing down to about 15 degrees advance on the next tooth i can get it up to about 5 degrees retard.

I pulled the timing belt to make sure everything was still ok and everything checked out there. I can get the timing to the recommended 10 degrees if i retard both cams 1 tooth but then the power suffers.

Has any one else had this problem? Could the gear on the new distributor just be clocked wrong on the shaft?

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. I have been playing with this motor for a week now and still nothing. Please don't tell me to swap the engine that is not the advise I am after I am planning on putting a diesel in it this winter when i do the SAS I just want to be able to play with it this fall until it get cold and goes under the knife.

Thanks in advance.
Matthew

 

on the diagnostic connector by the engine fuse/relay center there is a timing check pin you have to jumper to set the base timing, otherwise the ecu adjusts the timing while you are.

 

Thanks AKHeathen, I jumped those pins with my SST(paperclip) and the check engine light flashes while it is running so I am assuming it is in diagnostic mode.

I adjusted the timing about 3k miles ago while i was doing some other work on it and the line on the top of the original distributor lined up almost perfectly with the little ridge on the head.The bolt was almost perfectly centered in the slot as well