hey fellas,

Did a tune up on my motor, cap, rotor, plugs, wires, went to set the timing and the distributor is maxed out and its at 10 degrees. I can rotate the other way but it retards the timing and the motor runs ruff. Runs really bad when cold, have to let it warm up a few mins or it stumbles. I dont even know where to start, any idears?

bob

 

you jumped the connector?
If yes then my next guess would be the distributer is off a tooth, or the timing belt jumped a tooth.
Any somewhat recent engine work? There seems to be a rash of service shops that don't know how to properly set timing on engines they've just worked on. At least that's what it feels like from the recent posts here.

 

The helical gear on the distributor has 13 teeth, so if it's off 1 tooth everything moves about 28°. (But if your distributor hasn't been removed, short of a broken gear I don't know how that could happen.)

Unlike others, I'm doubtful that your timing belt could spontaneously "jump" a tooth. At least without a lot of damage. But certainly worth checking.

Last, there is a rubber annular ring in the crankshaft damper. There are several reports of that rubber failing, allowing the outside ring (the one with the timing mark) to rotate. But your reports of how it is running at 10° sounds like your measurement is correct. So I'm not much additional help.

 

Agree on all the points Scope raised.
If a shop has touched the engine in the recent past that may answer, and at the same time create, many questions.

 

Try relocate all the plugs wires in the same sequence one connection to the left, then the distributor can be turned more for advancing. Maybe you started one plug connection to the right. If you didn't remove the distributor (did you?), then it is not one gear tooth off as it was not before. The odds of the timing belt jumping when the engine is off during the tune-up is zero. The only variables are the cap and wires. It can happen.

 

Thanks for the replies fellas! Yes the connector is jumped. The timing mark isnt in a constant location when the light flashes and sometimes disappears for a second or two. When I can see the mark, it seems to move about 2-3 degrees by itself. Truck runs great, very boggy when cold, its definitely been faster, have to let it warm up a bit before driving and its a gas pig(all city 10-11mpg). I baby the pedal no lead foot here. I could check for distributor tooth play by seeing if the rotor moves a bit, ill check tomorrow. Otherwise I may have a bad harmonic balancer, Ill give it good look over soon. No major engine work done by me or a shop in the 2 years Ive had the truck. Nobody knows how to work on these things around here so I do what I can myself. Ill report back when ive looked a few things over, thanks again!

bob

 

If the engine idle RPM is not within spec, (too high) the ecu will not revert timing to idle spec.
Same if the throttle position sensor is not in proper adjustment.
The TPS must be sending 'throttle closed' to the ECU for idle timing to be correctly. set.

Some things to be looked into before jumpering and attempting to set timing.

 

fwiw, use jimkola's method to set the TPS correctly. google search for it in this (yotatech) sub-forum. it is so much easier than the "factory service manual" method.

edit: noticed OP has a 3.slow, rather than a 22re. smarter people than me will have to let you know whether that method works on the 3.slow for setting the TPS.

 

If the timing is jumping, you could have a badly worn bearing in the distributor. I see you plan to check for "distributor tooth play," which would be to see if you could rotate the rotor. Also check for side-to-side slop.

 

I’ve asked people with the 3.0 to lmk how it worked, but they never post up😡
I can't see why it wouldn't work. Same principle. Just set your base timing to whatever the book calls, and go from there.

 

I had same issue,,,got worse and learned the timing chain guide had broke and jumped a few teeth causing internal damage to head. From the pieces of timing chain guide in the oil pan im sure some of it got chewed up going between sprocket and chain..remedy was install my spare engine...fix other one later,,later later
Head would need rebuilt possibly and pistons may be scored?

 

Finally got around to checking a few things. Rotor barely moves so teeth on dist are good, rotor however moves quite a bit on the shaft. When the rotor is installed I can move it several degrees either way. Cant see the balancer without pulling the radiator. Took the plug wires off one by one and all 6 are firing. Idle is smooth at 850rpm in park and 600 in gear. No idle bounce but has a slight miss is felt in gear. Ill try the tps reset mentioned above. Thanks for the replies!

bob

 

Never knew the condition of the timing belt, And I bought the aisin kit w idler, tensioner, and water pump. Took it to a shop to have it done, look at the crank gear n key it was about to go. Wow truck has some nuts now! lol

shem