[captain42082]

are the timing marks on the balancer the same for all,or are they year specific? tried to time engine,but mark is not within the pointer.suspect distributer was put in 180 out,as vac can is toward the passenger side. thoughts? help?

[vertbird]

all my pontiacs have vac. adv. unit toward driver side. Does it run smoothly at all? As far as I know timing marks are the same.

[jjscerbo]

There is always the chance that the timing marks can be off. Verification is always a good thing to do.

I just degreed my cam on my new engine, but found the factory timing cover or balencer is off from true TDC. It shows two degrees advanced from actual TDC.

[vertbird]

Another thought, take off the dist. cap, remove #1plug, rotate engine by hand while holding finger in #1 plug hole. Once you feel pressure building continue to rotate engine to the TDC mark on the balancer....this should give you TDC on the compression stroke. Dist. rotor should be pointing to #1. which is almost straight back toward fire wall.

[cerino2000]

If it is running, I imagine it's just backwards which really doesn't matter so long as the firing order was done correctly. Where is the mark if it's not near where it is supposed to be? Do you have the vacuum advance disconnected while trying to time it?

[johnta1]

Is the engine running right now?

Just rotate the distributor until the timing marks lines up, if it running now.

Since evidently this distributor has been out before, the #1 on the distributor could be pointing anywhere.

Do as vertbird says, except where the rotor points should be where the #1 post on the cap/wire is.

[captain42082]

motor is running,no backfiring,or missing. the timing mark is about 3 inches lower than the pointer . the dist is turned as far as it will go counterclockwise;now against the hose nipple on the passenger head. the motor has hesitation,which i thought was probably timing. vac was discon& blocked when using timing light-hei dist-accell coil

[67ConvFB]

I had the same thing happen about 20 years ago on a 389. Can' t remember what exactly the problem was, but it wasn' t the balancer, as it was used on another engine and worked just fine. Will check back in if I can remember exactly what it was.

[cerino2000]

I am going to guess the balancer has slipped if the vacumm advance was unplugged. What year is the engine. Original timing cover?

[Doug Christie]

Just find TDC, take Dist. out and rotate 180*. Then just replace wires in the correct firing order. You'll have to line up the Dist. shaft with the oil pump shaft. Just use a screw driver down the back of the Dist. hole. It will all make sense when you do it.

[captain42082]

thanks for the replys! now all I need is some warmer weather to work in the garage!While the dist is out,I should get the advance set up? Am I right in thinking this has to be done on a dist. machine??

[Blue '66]

Hey Captain,is the engine a 8 bolt or 11 bolt timing cover?

[johnta1]

You may not even have to take the distributor out.

Crank/rotate the engine so that the #1 terminal on the cap is lined up with the rotor. (usually where the timing mark on balancer and timing cover align, but yours seems off)

With the cap off and possibly the distributor wire disconnected, rotate the distributor housing to where you want it. (180?)

Now the rotor will still be pointing to where the #1 terminal on the cap should be.
Just start there for the #1 plug wire then go counter-clockwise on the cap in the firing order.
Re-time with the vacuum advance plugged.

As Blue '66, is alluding to, the earlier balancers were a smaller diameter than the newer ones.

So, if the balancer is wrong for the timing cover it will read wrong.

[mj64car]

"As Blue '66, is alluding to, the earlier balancers were a smaller diameter than the newer ones.

So, if the balancer is wrong for the timing cover it will read wrong"



As long as the marks are in the same spot around the circumference - diameter does not matter.

[johnta1]

Well, technically, maybe.

The 0º on the balancer and the 0º on the timing cover would be right.
Assuming the timing tab placement isn't different and the timing mark on the balancer isn't different from the 2 styles.

The 10º mark on the timing cover tab will not be the same actual degrees when aligned with the timing mark on the balancer if it's a different size.

[captain42082]

I will have to check to see how many bolts in the cover,get back to you!!what about the advance on hei?? have to be done on machine??

[mj64car]

All degrees are arcs measured from the center of the crank. The degrees are the same no matter the size of the circle. What is different the the length of the arc (the perimeter of the circle). The degrees get wider apart the further from the center, but 4 degrees is always 4 degrees. The length of the arc will always get longer the further from the center. The balancer is marked in degrees, it doesn't matter what the diameter is. You are measuring degrees and not perimeter. A circle is divided into 360 degrees. If the pointer is a large distance from the balancer, it could get difficult to read accurately.

[johnta1]

That's what I'm implying.

The timing cover for the smaller diameter balancer would have a different arc length on the tab. Zero would be zero (if balancer marked in the same referance point in relation to the keyway).
But the other numbers would be spaced closer together for the smaller balancer/cover. And vice-versa.
Using the wrong timing tab with different spaced marks, the marks would be off. The parallex effect would probably throw the marks off if nothing else.

[Kenth]

I guess what johnta1 is saying is that the degrees will be closer to eachother on a small diameter scale than on a large diameter scale........

Wich of course is correct.