Owning a Renegade converted sbc 914, I've often wondered how other owners have solved the problem of not being able to see the timing marks on the harmonic balancer.
What was/is your solution (other than timing by ear)?
Thanks!

Cutting hole in firewall?

Now with cheap remote cameras that you can plug into your phone or laptop that might work?

The remote cam might work....
I did cut an access panel in my wall (to access the water inlets), but sadly, the lip of the wall just above the harmonic balancer prevents being able to see the balancer and or the pointer. Not even sure if a cam could see it.
Cutting the lip would be a no no as this is structural, right?

I got a tip from here to mark TDC on the flywheel as viewed from the inspection area on top of the trans. Have yet to fire it up and test it but sounded like a good idea. Should be enough space from engine deck lid area to shine timing light and use remote camera to check it. I asssume a timing light with an advance function is necessary since I won’t have degree marks on the case (just location of TDC).

I did this- took a punch and put a dimple on top of the flywheel when set at 8 BTDC.

The guys at Renegade sent me this advice-

"For our in house cars, we use vacuum to measure where the timing should be. At very low idle, and the advance plugged off of the distributor, then advance the timing until the vacuum is at it’s highest reading. Retard the timing from there until you loose 2 inches of vacuum. A test drive to make sure it’s not pinging, and you’re set! If the engine is pinging, you can retard the timing by a degree or 2. If you add the timing marks on the bottom of the engine in addition to this method, you can verify the accuracy of the timing."

So, I'm thinking I'll have to cut another access panel below the shelf (where indicated)
Click to view attachment

I had thought I'd use vacuum, but my distributor guy said we need the marks (recurving the distributor).

I relocated the timing scale to the side of the balancer and made a new mark on the balancer corresponding to 0 deg at TDC. I can then easily check with the timing light looking from underneath the car on the driver side.

I think this is going to be the best method. And I'm going to cut an access panel in the trunk. This gives me the ability to see a mark and make adjustments (dizzy is right there).

That one's a good idea too, but kinda problematic (as would be my idea of the access panel in the cockpit) cause access to the dizzy is kinda difficult and thus would require two people.

I wonder if their's any other v-8 converted 914 owners out there that have done this and wouldn't mind sharing where in the trunk they made the access hole. I can take a pretty good guess based on feel, but an image would be most helpful

I've never had a problem adjusting timing by myself. I check where it's at with the light then advance or retard as needed. A couple of iterations and it's dialed in. If there was a reason to check timing often then I could see the access hole in the trunk would make it easier.

I'm thinking here, but it's a guess
Click to view attachment

Cut the shelf and add an access hole in the firewall. I cut all the shelf out, all the way around. The shelf is to seal off the air cooled engine. It's just in the way for a SBC.

Yep, that's what I opted for. I cut the shelf and now have excellent access to the pulleys. Need to make a simple indicator, use my dial indicator to find tdc and mark it.
All good in the neighborhood :-)

Scott with Renegade suggested the same but I found (on my 73) that the wall comes right exactly over the top transaxle hole.
Opening a panel didn't allow the ability to see the flywheel and it can't be seen from above (behind the dizz) even with the rear rubber shelf removed....so that solution (at least on the 73 where the body in the trunk is slightly different than earlier models) isn't going to work.
The only other thing I could see for using the flywheel as a timing mark is to remove the entire trunk wall and install a shock brace. More work than I'd like for this particular problem.
I've decided to remove the inner metal front shelf (that is apparently only for holding the forward rubber "shelf") behind the access panel I created in the cockpit which should give access to the harmonic balancer. It'll take two people to time the car with this fix, but at least precision timing will be able to occur (I'm re-curving my dizzy, so timing marks are pretty important)

A picture of what you did would be great.