Yes but... You don't have to go through all that taking the spark plug stuff
out either. The piston is at TDC when the big mark on the crank pulley is
lined up with the pointer. If the dist. Rotor is pointing to #3 then #1 is
at TDC on the exhaust stroke. Turn the crank 360 degrees and you're at TDC
on the ignition stroke. The dist rotor should now be pointing in the
vicinity of #1 although the car should not be timed at 0 degrees so you'd
actually be past #1. All that without removing the spark plug. Also, I
turn the engine by hand. Put the car in gear and push it to turn the
engine. It is easier to turn the engine over by hand if you remove the
plugs but I've not had too much difficulty skipping that step. I would not
have anyone turn the engine over with the starter if my hands were in there.
The other point is that there are reasons other than cam/timing chain issues
that could cause the distributor rotor to point in the wrong direction.
Checking the rotors position is valid, but it doesn't positively identify a
cam timing problem.
Last point is that the whole thing can be skipped as long as the engine will
turn over with the starter by connecting a timing light and checking to see
where the ignition timing is. You can do that quickly. If you find that
you cant see ANY timing marks on the crank pulley (and you checked that you
did indeed connect the light to the #1 plug wire) then you know your timing
is off.
BTW - some of you may already know this but I thought it was really cool
when I saw it the first time. A buddy of mine with a V8 Z car had a timing
light with a dial on the back that could advance or retard the light! What
this allowed him to do was dial, for example, 16 degrees of advance into the
light and the light would fire at the 0 mark on the pulley with the ignition
timed at 16 BTDC. A bit more accurate than eye balling the distance between
timing marks. You could use such a light to find out how far off you
ignition timing was if it was so far off that you couldn't see any of the
timing marks on the pulley with a normal light.
FWIW, I thought it was cool but then again, I haven't coughed up the money
to buy one myself.
Brian
Brian Hollands
Client Operations Analyst
ADP/Hayes-Ligon
(813) 672-4408 Office
(800) 523-8477x414 Voice Mail
-----Original Message-----
From: R Haug [mailto:haugchiro@moscow.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2001 12:17 AM
To: Brian Hollands; datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: timing chain
It actually works better than you think and I did say put your finger
in the hole just to block the spark plug hole. Excuse me, I should
have said to cover the spark plug hole. You can get the timing
marks lined up close with this method. You can usually get within
a quarter of a revolution of the appropriate timing mark and then
get it all lined up by hand. If the timing chain has jumped a tooth
or 2 the rotor will not be pointing at #1 cylinder's spark plug wire
in the cap. Thus you should be able to tell roughly, not pin point
accurately, that the timing chain is not lined up.
This can be done without taking the valve cover off as the person had
asked in the first place. It just happens to be a relatively quick way to
get a rough estimate.
I hope this clears up your confusion.
Bob
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