timing

[61austinseven]

help wanted
iam trying to time my 850 cc useing a strobe light.
which one of the three pointer on the cam cover does the
mark on the pulley need to be lined with.
thanks

[814CWE]

waste of time..the marks are never accurate on early engines

get the nicest idle u can by moving the distributor fore and aft

it always works for me,,,

[61austinseven]

Thanks Will give it a try

[Gordon]

Hi, Did you mean to say cam cover? I'm sure the timing marks I have used in the past are on the flywheel and viewed through a window in the clutch housing. Sadly they are a bit hit and miss, and usually some fine tuning has to be done afterwards to avoid pinking and running on etc.

Gordon

[Lord Croker]

help wanted
iam trying to time my 850 cc useing a strobe light.
which one of the three pointer on the cam cover does the
mark on the pulley need to be lined with.
thanks

Do you mean the pointers that point downwards as on A35, MG Midgets etc, or the A+ type that you look at from the top, under the alternator pulley? The A+ type are 4 degrees apart & there are 6 of them, the type that point downwards are 5 degrees apart & there are only 3. As you mention 3 pointers I can assume it is 5 degrees between each pointer & the setting for a 1969-1972 850 is 3 degrees BTDC at 600 RPM with vacuum advance pipe disconnected, meaning literally 3/5ths of the distance from the TDC pointer to the previous one. I think Brook Shaw's idea is a hell of a lot easier & there's a lot to be said for minor adjustment either way & road testing.

[Nevsmini]

If you have access to a dial gauge you can get TDC through the plug hole. Then mark it up on the front pulley with tip-ex off any point you find handy, then you can check the timing at any time in 2 min.

[bmcman.ie]

do as brookshaw says, i do exactly the same and like him, i have never had a problem, well, a little pinking here and there but thats easy to sort ian.