trying to time my '87 22re, it will catch briefly and i can watch it fire at the "0" mark but then it shuts down as fast as it came up....any ideas?

 

I believe when I did mine I had to disconnect the timing advance vaccum hose to set the timing correctly. Also I think you set it at 6 or seven instead of zero at idle. Somebody else help me out I can't really remember.

 

Make sure that you have all the intake ductwork connected. The Air Flow meter must see air movement or it will not run.

 

new clue, after trying to start it i pull the distributor cap and the rotor is in a different position when the timing mark is at "0" than when i started. also I don't have vacuum advance so there is no vacuum hose to disconnect on this one (see carolinaredneck88 comment)

 

That's normal. Your engine has 4 cycles before returning to the same stroke and firing position.

Find TDC, with the cam at 11-12 o'clock and the timnig chain bright link on the dot...

 

i got it.....the manual on utulsa for the 93 4runner told me 5 degrees early....that was half of it....p.s. the distributor hold down clamp is a pressure boundary for the oil system so don't try to time it w/out that bolt in....i'm not admitting how i figured that out this evening