Timing mark question

Stephen B · Stephen B's Garage

I'm in the process of adjusting my valves for the first time. Rotated the crank to TDC (pulley notch is aligned with the mark on the fan shroud). Checked the rockers - both are unloaded and on the heel of the cams. Popped the distributor cap off and the rotor is ligned up with plug wire terminal #5? If I continue to rotate until the rotor is aligned with #1 the pulley mark is about 30 degrees past the line. As a side note: the engine runs fine - no reason to believe things are that far off. Hopefully one of you Gurus can enlighten me!

Thanks in advance.

burgermeister · burgermeister's Garage

There are 4 notches on my 3.2; 3 of them 120 degrees apart (to be used for valve adjustments), and one bonus notch near #1 TDC, about 20 or 30 crank degrees off. Per various instructions, the correct notch says "Z1" on it - that is supposed to be the correct notch. Unfortunately, my pulley has no such markings that I can find - I could just be stupid about where I'm looking.

But the #5 thing seems odd. Even more odd is that 30 degrees of crank rotation moves the distributor rotor one full cylinder - ought to take 120 degrees. Sure you're keeping track of the notches?

As long as the rocker is riding on the base circle of the cam, it should be OK to adjust the valve, even if the crank is 30 degrees off. Says a newbie with 2 valve adjustments (1 good, 1 bad) under his belly.

ZOA NOM · ZOA NOM's Garage

Stephen B · Stephen B's Garage

Thanks for the reply Zonas. I'll actually measure what's going on degree wise - the 30 degree estimate was eyeballed. I could not find a Z1 mark either. Just three distinct single notches 120 degrees apart. 60 degrees of rotor movement would take 120 degrees of crank rotation so my earlier observation doesn't make much sense. I'll re-align when I get home and see what happens.

Thanks,

bwc racing · 12-10-2007, 03:57 PM

zonas i love those hands

how can i get them ?

ZOA NOM · ZOA NOM's Garage

They are part of the clipart library in Adobe Photoshop.

bwc racing · 12-10-2007, 07:38 PM

thanks i could use that at work.sorry for highjacking the post.

Stephen B · Stephen B's Garage

So after further investigation last night involving better light and reading glasses (sucks getting old!) I found ALL the marks - the TDC notch and the 'bonus' notch . There is no visible Z1 marking due to the A/C pulley being in the way. The Z1 notch appears to be more of a slot instead of a v-notch like the others if that makes any sense.

Sorry for wasting your time guys. Thanks for the help,

burgermeister · burgermeister's Garage

Great!

I don't feel my time was wasted ... heck, I've posted questions like "how do I get the muffler and catalytic converter apart" ... and I got lots of useful advice, too.

shbop · 12-11-2007, 08:46 AM

The whistle-stop is a great tool. Combined with the visual of watching #1 intake open, then close, you're sure to be on the right stoke and approaching TDC on that cylinder. Audio and video is a big help for us visually impaired. (old) I had a pulley that I would have sworn didn't have a Z1 mark. Only after removing and cleaning it, did I finally find it