TIMING @ 180 OUT DISCUSSION

iSAY, THE ONLY WAY TO GET 180 OUT is to line up the timing mark @ zero and not check to see if it's on the compression stroke... I say if you pull the cap and see where the rotor is pointing... stab the distributor with the rotor pointing in the same spot... and put the number one plug wire in the same spot it will be close enough to run....but I was told today that thats how you get 180 out.... I said I have always done it that way,,, but was told that I just got lucky....lol,,, vec doesn't have a timing mark... and I said I've done it with no mark, or timing light...one guy cranks it and the other move the dist a little till it runs and idles... then test.. if it labors the starter too much advance.... back it up... then road test... if it pings back it off... if it doesn't give it a tad more... then do the starter test again... right or wrong.... also.... I said the crank turns 2 to one on the dist.. right or wrong...new techs loose it with dist. and carbs..

 

the other way I do it is on a motor with no dist...put my finger on the #1 plug hole and feel for the compression,.. then to get more spot on if theres no timing mark.. put a zip tie in the plug hole and watch for it to go as high as it will go... thats TDC... and it doesn't matter where the #1 plug wire is, where ever the rotor is point ing is #1...

 

man I figured the guys here would know this...guess I was wrong again

 

Pull the passenger side rover cover and observe #6 rockers.
The exhaust should be closing and intake starts opening.

Cylinder #1 will be on compression stroke [then line up the timing marks]
This method works on 90° crankshafts

 

What brought this on?

 

my flat head doesn't have the nipple on the crank..... so no timing mark... this guy that says he knows flatheads was going to help me put a new distributor in... while I was waiting for it... he stopped by and was looking around.... when I told him there's no timing marks... he said I have to pull the head... and when I told him how to do it he dis agreed... said it will never work,,, need less to say... I'll be doing it my self.. my distributor has no advance... verified by a vacuum pump. the vacuum advance won't hold vacuum ,.. it leaks... so I got a new distributor.. the motor is real lazy



next... I've read that flats go clock wise @ the dist.... gonna have to check that today....is this diagram right???

 

but doesn't work on flatheads...also there is no #6 on the pass. side...unless you mean r. hand drive.... but thanks for helping..

 

another ... never heard before,.. worked on motors all my life... been to 10 county fairs and a goat rope'n.... what the hell is a rover cover???

 

Soooo. I figured a rover cover was a blanket that this dog motor needs to keep warm in the winter... which gave me this idea.... why not put an electric blanket over the engine on cold winter nights??? but anyway... found out that a rover cover is the timing cover on the bottom side of the world...

 

soon as day light hits vegas I'm putting this dist. in..I will not remover one thing from the motor but the dist.... and it will run.. or I will be eating crow toe rims off my 32

 

sooo. right or wrong??? no one knows...still waiting on the light of day in vegas....

 

also thinking that 48-53 dist turn clock wise???

 

Should be fairly obvious @Mimilan is referring to the rocker cover.

Where did you get the info that a timing cover can be called a "rover cover"? How would you observe the #6 rockers by taking off a timing cover?

 

there's so much wrong there...flats don't have rockers or valve covers.. or rovers... the timing cover as I call it is also called a rover.. flatheads don't have #6 on the american passenger side..

I did a google search and thats what came up so worse than hear say..

 

I figured with the china billet dist??? but feel free to move it anywhere you want... I hired a guy off face book.. a flathead mech... told him I want him to put the dist in,.. I said what you said..and said there's no timing mark. he said can't be done correct and it will be 180 out...that the head has to come off

 

well , I guess he was right.. I can't just buy a dist... pull the old one out and put a new one in... everybody else can... I can't... what a shit show...

 

so this was supposed to be a job so easy even I could do it... lol wrong...
took out the dist.. mark a diagram where the rotor was pointing, and where #1 plug wire is... also verified that the distributor does go clock wise.. pull the dist... and pull the coil.... thats when the shit show started...it has a 6v coil????? 12v battery... so I verified that the gen is 12v....also the solenoid is 12v so thinking that the 12v dist isn't gonna work... put the old stuff back in... under the dash there is 2 what look like ballast resisters,,, could one be a volt drop...???? volts at the coil are only 9v when running... it's 14v at the battery when running.. but the voltage reg says 7&???? to run the electroiic dist... you have to use a 45v coil and remove the ballest...needs 12v at the coil... one of the resistors under the dash gets hot which makes me think it a volt drop??? puzzeled..

 

Unfortunately you are trying to be a smart-ass expecting us all to have mind reading skills.
Nowhere in your first 3 stupid "cries for help" did you mention Flathead.

My husband was correct ..... you act like an argumentive d***head [and probably a reason why a lot of people including him, can't be bothered anymore with this forum]

 

Go back and read your thread title and your first three posts before @Mimilan posted their reply (post #4).
You didn't tell us it was a flathead until post #6. We are not psychic....

 

so I got her done... runs like a mouse in slippers... the what I thought was a ballast resister turned out to be a volt drop....i by passed it and got 12v to the coil.. stabbed the dist... fired right up.... but pullin to the advance side it was hitting... so I pulled it out went over one tooth and bam runs perfect... a joy to drive runs easy with traffic... up the same grade that I went up floored in 2nd @ 35 mph... I now pull high gear @ 45 with lots of peddle left....happy camper right now..

 

probley settle down and not have so much un controlled emotion.... the thread about putting a distributor on a MOTOR... doesn't matter which one... I said you can't get 180 out if you put the rotor in the same spot and the plug wires in the same spot... but I've been married 40 yrs ...2 words I learned that keep me in the game..... yes dear...

 

the thread wasn't about a flathead.... could have been about a SBC... or a hemi... it's all the same.. you people get un hindged and then get mad because I don't... and anyway... I'm right about what I saaid and proved it.... or got lucky again...

 

see what you started??? the thread was timing in general... on any motor with a dist. and plug wire....LOL... but thanks for posting... I got her done... and even though no one will dare say I was right.... they all know...

 

I did say thanks for posting, I didn't read your post till after I was replying to mad mike... he asked what brought this on so I told him... the 180 out was just in general...
but like I said...if the dist. is in and running... just mark where #1 is and mark where the rotors pointing and put it back the same way you took it out....works every time... that is unless you hit the starter..

 

should be fairly obvious in the united states, we call valve covers..... uhhh VALVE COVERS...RIGHT???

 

i SEEN THIS ON SPEED WAY...could it be for a crab distributor???

my 51 flat head goes clockwise