Hi

As you may or may not know my electronic ignition blew in Germany i have a new one on the way but one thing i will need to do is time it.
Yes i could send it to get fitted, but one thing the germany trip highlighted was my massive lack of knowledge of how to fix stuff!

so i'm going to do this myself

Now, i need a timing gun....what do i get, i don't mind spending a bit on a good one, as it something that will pay for its self very soon
budget - say £100
Do i need one with Dwell and revs, these are terms I've heard, but not yet fully understand

Help

Also i assume to woks by putting the amount of advance you what into the gun, the strobe flashes at that rate and that effective;y make the number on the pulley stay still on the case line.....


cheers chaps

Personally, I would go for one with both Dwell and Tacho

Dwell isn`t really used for electronic ignition, but makes setting up points soooo simple 

Any recommendations dave?

Afraid not - I have an old one here inherited from Noah, but no markings on it - possibly Snap-On ?

http://www.accuspark.co.uk/tools.html

Look at the Chrome one that's got advance on it  doesn't have dwell though

http://www.gunson.co.uk/item.aspx?cat=1356&item=1834

This is the one I have. Had it over 25 years I think, cost me £89 new.

Quote from: Shaggy on May 19, 2016, 07:19:15 AM
http://www.accuspark.co.uk/tools.html

Look at the Chrome one that's got advance on it  doesn't have dwell though

http://www.gunson.co.uk/item.aspx?cat=1356&item=1834

This is the one I have. Had it over 25 years I think, cost me £89 new.

So with all the advances is manufacturing processes etc over the past 25 years, yours has 'only' gone up £200
!

That scared me.....looked on eBay and found them for £135-£150 on there

Dav

I got my one off FleaBay second hand = welcome to use it if you want.  Snap-Op.   Seems a really good bit of kit and probably better than I needed.  There is one in Manchester showing on FleaBay at the mo - personally I found the tacho a great bonus as I dont have one on the car plus when your head is down near the dizzy its so much easier if the tacho is on the gun.

Quote from: davydoff on May 18, 2016, 08:41:11 PM
Hi

As you may or may not know my electronic ignition blew in Germany i have a new one on the way but one thing i will need to do is time it.
Yes i could send it to get fitted, but one thing the germany trip highlighted was my massive lack of knowledge of how to fix stuff!

so i'm going to do this myself

Now, i need a timing gun....what do i get, i don't mind spending a bit on a good one, as it something that will pay for its self very soon
budget - say £100
Do i need one with Dwell and revs, these are terms I've heard, but not yet fully understand

Help

Also i assume to woks by putting the amount of advance you what into the gun, the strobe flashes at that rate and that effective;y make the number on the pulley stay still on the case line.....


cheers chaps

I wouldn't buy a gun with advance timing degrees on it just buy a standard gun, There no need to advance the timing using the gun at all with a aircooled engine you will always have it set to zero.

When timing you can do it 2 ways static or under load

static is when you set your engine to TDC (top dead center) using the strobe and adjust your carb to get the engine running as sweat as possible.

Under load is a better way, with your engine already set TDC as above rev the engine to 3000rpm then using your strobe set the timing to around 10% advance (you then adjust carb to suit if its idealing to high) this way your getting more performance from your engine. Most aircooled engine should be set around 10% advance, but all are a little different so you may need to play around with it.

My drag racing car is set at 17% The maximum you can go is 32% advance but your on the limit and not recommended for road use (think of all the drag racing beetle you see that tick over on the start line at 2500revs) That what they are doing to get the most out of the car, but not really practical for every day use and pertentional engine damaging.     

Im confused

I want to set the timing under load. if i need to advance it 10% how do i do that without a gun that does advance..

I think my engine will want more advance than that as its not std. its 2054 with FK8, 1:4 rockers and 44 webbers

I will get my head round this one day, sorry for the daft questions..

Shaggy - i can get the same gun as you for £130 from amazon, so that sound like it will cover me for all eventualities

Davy,

I have an 009, centrifugal advance, ie the advance mechanism thats built into it
relys on weights that fly out as the revs rise, they are on springs and as such are controlled
ie they are not free to just fling right out as soon as the revs increase.

I use a standard pully, not sure what its diameter is now, but somewhere around 170mm I think.

I drew a circle on cad and then put 360 lines all the way around it, after deleting
all but the ones I wanted I was able to get the straight line dimensions in mm from top dead centre on the pulley
to the 28, 30 and 32 degree points.

Using a pair of dividers I then located the TDC mark and scribed these three points across the outside of my pully.

To set my timing...

I loosen the distributor clamp slightly, start the engine and increase the engine revs to about 2800/3000, this ensures
the weights are fully flung out, then using a standard strobe light, I twist the distributor until the 30 degree
marking lines up with the split in the crankcases..

I clamp up the distributor at that point, release the throttle and set tick over to suit...

Depending on the ammount of advance you need or is recomended here, you can just alter the position of the marks,
my engine is not in your league power wise but 30 degrees advance works fine for me.

Thats it, you can time an engine in 5 seconds flat 

I hope this helps you a bit just to understand whats going on 

All the best
Peter

Same as me Peter and it works fine, in fact I only have 2 scibes on Rasperry  TDC and 30'.

I do mine as above, I go slightly more towards 32 degrees, which it seems to like.

Great diagram Peter.I will check my pulley now

awesome guys, thats kinda what i thought, but managed to confuse myself, easily done

My pulley has marking on it, its this one


So i guess i'm ok with using these numbers

Cheers

QuoteSo i guess i'm ok with using these numbers

Yup! I guess you are  ..... Go for it Davy 

Peter