not your normal timming question so back off!

(this is after my rebuild 15 miles on the motor, most around the neighborhood)
Let me start by saying the truck starts fine, idles ok but pings badly.

so i finally decided to check timming. Couldnt for the life of me figure out were my tick mark was... so i put a spot of yellow grease pencil on the crank gear at the tick mark location.

still couldnt see it. So i ask myself .... self! why cant you see that yellow dot.
hmmmmm perhaps your not looking in the right location!

so we start hunting down what should be a yellow dot as view under a timming light while the motor idles (sorta ok)

were do we find it?

hear


yes some 1/4 of a pully off the marks give or take.

before you ask, i am absoulty postive that the cam gears line up with the marks and the crank gear lines up with the oil pump mark, POSTIVE i tell you, i checked no less than 4 times when i was putting it together and after i started it before i had it all back together.

so whats going on? I would have thought that far off i wouldnt be running AT ALL!

Im guessing my distrubutor is off.

thanks for the help guys!

 

Yeah, it looks to be a couple of teeth off! Is your distributor turned all the way one way or the other? When installed correctly it should fall somewhere near the middle of the slot that the hold down bolt goes in! I would set it to TDC of compression stroke and check the rotor in should be pointing @ 1 tower on your dist. cap! Did you disconnect the battery and try to let the computer reset itself! It pinging because oyur timing is too far advanced It is probably firing about half way up the compression stroke instead of right at the top of the compression stroke! Do you have a vacuum hose off somewhere? Just somethings to check! Also check your tps.

 

I know one time I kept pulling my distributor and reseating it in the right teeth...if I was maybe 2 teeth off then it wouldn't start at all. One tooth was making it run pretty sick. Is that yellow dot a supposed location of the mark on your crank pulley and is that at TDC at compression stroke with the distributor rotor pointing at #1 spark plug wire? If so you got some slack there inside somewhere. Make sure ya jumper that diagnostic plug when checking timing too. I'm sure you know this from being here a while....wish ya luck

 

yes it runs "best" if i have the distrubutor turned as far counterclockwise as i can.

ie when looking at the distrubutor the lock down bolt is at the very BOTTOM of the adjuster slot.

so can i take the bolt out of the lock down location, then keep turning it till my dot's were its supposed to be. then pull the whole thing out and rotate it back to were the bolt is were its supposed to be and drop it back in the hole?

 

What I did...was if you look on the side of your distributor next to the holddown....it should have a mark on it running straight up and down. There is also a mark on the actual hold down part too and if you line that mark up then it sits at the adjustment place that its supposed to be. Make sure its at TDC, rotate the rotor to #1, then line up them marks on the side of the dist and slide it straight in. Try that out...

 

your probably just one tooth off then! take the lock down bolt out(with the cap off) and pull the distributor out slowly when you feel the teeth release turn it 1 tooth conterclockwise then reinstall and check timing! if you are still way off the go one more tooth and recheck. Make sure you jumper the diag. terminals to take the disable the computer. You need to set a base timing of 8 deg BTC(I believe)!

 

ya see im good with the wrenches part... i suck at this crap!

ok so i think i know what i need to do, i think im going to go study my toyota manual.

...this is about the point were i drive it someplace and say.. tune it up and walk away.

so i think this is more frustrating that fighting that bolt you cant quite get to for 30 min.

 

It's not hard, just take your time. You just have to get a feel for it when it come out. Turn the dist so it is centered, then mark where the rotor is in relation to the dist. housing. Then pull the dist out real easy, you will feel the gear release. Then turn the rotor just 1 tooth counter-clockwise(don't pull the dist all the way out, just enough to release the teeth on the dist shaft gear). After you turn it 1 tooth push the dist back in and re-center the dist and see where it is in relation to he mark you made before. It is not hard, just go slow and you will get it!

 

They'll run when they're advanced that much. But they will ping. And they are very difficult to start. The early timing causes the engine to buck the starter.

 

Heres another, Is you TPS set correctly?
I Had mine tuned at the dealer (Dumb Idea that was), They did nothing to help what was wrong, I had real high idle and the timing dot was where your was, I turned the distributor to get it down to even 20 deg mark and I caould barely get it to move on the road so I set it back to that spot, At least it ran.
My TPS was off and the TB was really dirty, Cleaned, sealed the TB and set the TPS and the timing mark fell right on 8 deg, And the idle screw works now too.
It just purrrrs at 800 now and no studder.

 

Thats just a dist. thats off a tooth.... Just find out where #1 is on your dist cap, and make a mark on your distributor that lines up with #1 on the cap, and pull it out enough to rotate it and make sure that its point it at...

I can tell you right now your 1 tooth off, pull it out slowly and feel for the end of the gear then turn it counterclockwise 1 notch.

I think someone already said that!