I've seen mention of this whispered around, but I have a timing issue.

When I set the timing after reconditioning the distributor in my 1971 1.7 orange love sunburst explosion 914, I added a Pertronix unit and went on my merry way. I notice that at constant high speed or hard acceleration after 3000rpm that it hesitates (or misses). It took me a long time to think that it might be a timing issue, so I pulled out the timing light to re-check it. In the meantime I've dealt with other issues like vacuum leaks, a bad MPS, etc. so this timing problem was underneath all of the other problems.

With a lead-footed friend in the driver seat, he tried to maintain a constant 3500rpm while I shoved my face over the inspection hole with the timing light. It isn't quite getting the mark to line up, so I'm a little advanced still.

The issue? I can't physically rotate the distributor any further because the vacuum advance is already pushed up against the fan housing. Awesome!

Um, what? Please tell me this isn't a "your engine was rebuilt wrong somewhere along the way, so go rebuild it right" issue.

In a blazing moment of ghetto mental imbalance, I pulled the spark plug wires from the distributor, and moved them all over one notch. That does not work. So I put them back. When I installed the distributor I made sure the rotor was pointing at cylinder #1 at TDC.

I'm confused.

I had this problem on my 1.8. You need to pull out the distribulator drive gear and rotate it by a tooth. Be careful not to loose the washer.

Thanks!

Can you do that with the engine in the bay? I know how to do this on my Chrysler with a pickup magnet and screwdriver. I don't see the procedure in the Haynes manual, unless I'm not looking in the right place.

Hot.

Well, that was easy. I started by marking where the indentations were initally so I'd have a reference point for replacing it later. I plucked the little spring out with a small pair of needle nose pliers and set it on some white cardboard. Then I used a really powerful telescoping magnet and carefully pulled out the gear. I made sure that it looked okay and wiped it down with a paper towel. I read that I needed to be really, really careful with the washer underneath it and luckily the washer remained magically affixed to the bottom of the gear the whole time. Rotating it counter-clockwise several degrees I dropped into place and I patted it home with gentle rotational pressure from a screwdriver. I replaced the spring and re-attached everything. Now the distributor orientation looks exactly like it does in the book and my timing is set perfectly to 27 degrees at 3500rpm.

How pleasing.

Well done.

the haynes manual has a discription of indexing the drive gear and some photos to help you line it up right. I suggest you consult that manual for the photos, that will be a big help to you I think. pictures worth a lot of words.


also make sure your electronic igntion module is not haging up the advance/retard, make sure the wires inside have enough free play to allow movement of the timing but not too much as to get in the way, also make sure the module is not rubbing on any internal parts, al of these can hang up the advacne / retard mechanism.


good luck

Thank you for all of the responses.

The bit in the Haynes manual now makes perfect sense after the fact. Having not removed the timing gear before I really had no idea of what to expect. In retrospect its all perfectly clear now.

Thanks again.