[chrise321]

When I checked my initial timing on the 69 GTO I recently bought, the timing mark was off of the scale on the timing cover probable by 2 inches or more in the advanced direction. This was with the vacuum advance line off and plugged. When I tried to adjust it back towards 12 degrees, it would hardly idle. Someone else posted the same problem a while back and and someone told him that the harmonic balancer might have slipped on its rubber mounting. I decided to check if the mark was in the right location when #1 cylinder was at TDC, so I bought a piston stop and while turning the crank ccw to bring the piston back up to the stop, the balancer bolt actually came loose (obviously not torqued to 160 lbs.) Anyway I decided to take off the balancer to look at it and discovered it was an earlier model(64~67) 2-piece unit. The engine in my car is a 68 WT block with a 9-bolt waterpump and I was wondering if this harmonic balancer will work. It is not correct for this year engine but all of the belts line up and I don't think that the 2-piece balancer has the slipping problem of the 1-piece rubber style (correct me if I'm wrong). If it is ok to use, I will just reinstall it with the proper amount of torque on the bolt and continue my checks. Could it be that the timing mark on this style of balancer is in a different location than on the 1-piece balancer? I hope not because If I have to buy a new 1-piece style balancer it looks like I will also need new pulleys (at least crankshaft pulley) as well. If the mark does line up at TDC, could my problem be one of carburetor mixture and RPM adjustment to make it idle better closer to 12 degree initial timing? One more thing, I believe this car has a non-stock cam in it but I do not know the specs on it. It has a mild lopey sound but definitly not real radical.