john.thompson068
Well-Known Member
I had taken a month or so off from working on the car out of frustration. Today, after replacing my failed calipers and tightening the Earl fittings to stop the fuel leak after having to replace my cracked fuel pump, I started the car.
I first noticed it was cranking slow. Then once fuel hit the cylinders it cranked even slower, but it started. However, once it was hot I turned it off and it would not restart. The starter would barely turn the motor. I retarded the timing a tad bit at a time and the starter turned over better each time. Finally I got it to fire and I put the timing light on it and it was still at 22*. I dialed it in for 15* and now it will turn over fast and fire off immediately. The marks on my distributor and the hold down clamp are almost perfectly lined up. I followed directions from the 4 seconds flat website and on there it says to turn the distributor like 3/16 to 7/16 an inch or something like that in order to give the motor enough initial timing to fire off after reinstalling the distributor. Anyway, as it turns out, that was way to far. So going along with the tech section at the website, I turned it 3/16 an inch and then set the timing to 15* or so and it would not start when it was hot and also was running erratically at times. I thought it was the starter, a hot starter issue, a bad battery, bad grounds, I had no idea. So all along it was way to advanced. I was advanced so far that the timing light started all over again and it must have showed 15* because the distributor was rotated way to far clockwise. After I moved the distributor back to maybe 1/8 of an inch advanced from zero degrees timing, it was still reading the 22 degrees. So now it is maybe advanced about 1/16 an inch from where the paddle on the reluctor wheel was lined up with the pick up coil. I am just so glad to have that fixed and to have learned so much about setting timing. Maybe someone else can learn from this because I now there were quite a few people replying to my other thread who also had a hot start problem. If you are having a hot start problem, I am very sure it is related to the timing being too advanced.
I first noticed it was cranking slow. Then once fuel hit the cylinders it cranked even slower, but it started. However, once it was hot I turned it off and it would not restart. The starter would barely turn the motor. I retarded the timing a tad bit at a time and the starter turned over better each time. Finally I got it to fire and I put the timing light on it and it was still at 22*. I dialed it in for 15* and now it will turn over fast and fire off immediately. The marks on my distributor and the hold down clamp are almost perfectly lined up. I followed directions from the 4 seconds flat website and on there it says to turn the distributor like 3/16 to 7/16 an inch or something like that in order to give the motor enough initial timing to fire off after reinstalling the distributor. Anyway, as it turns out, that was way to far. So going along with the tech section at the website, I turned it 3/16 an inch and then set the timing to 15* or so and it would not start when it was hot and also was running erratically at times. I thought it was the starter, a hot starter issue, a bad battery, bad grounds, I had no idea. So all along it was way to advanced. I was advanced so far that the timing light started all over again and it must have showed 15* because the distributor was rotated way to far clockwise. After I moved the distributor back to maybe 1/8 of an inch advanced from zero degrees timing, it was still reading the 22 degrees. So now it is maybe advanced about 1/16 an inch from where the paddle on the reluctor wheel was lined up with the pick up coil. I am just so glad to have that fixed and to have learned so much about setting timing. Maybe someone else can learn from this because I now there were quite a few people replying to my other thread who also had a hot start problem. If you are having a hot start problem, I am very sure it is related to the timing being too advanced.
