Timing light won't flash...

[Wes85L]

Ok. I was out there trying to check dist. timing and hooked the leads up according to manual (neg. clip on neg. battery terminal, pos. clip on alt. bracket ground) and inductive pickup on the # 1 plug wire. I also unplugged the cooling fan. I tried it a few times and light would not flash once. I moved the inductive pickup and still nothing. Plug wires seem to be tight and connections at dist. cap. I have used this before and it has worked fine and I've adjusted timing to factory specs. It is a cheap Actron light if that matters. Please, if you have any tips or suggestions or a similar experience, post here. It's not a desperate matter exactly, this isn't my daily driver, but I intended to figure something out tonight with the car and this is stalling me. Thanks

[mcsvt]

Not sure why the positive lead would go to the alt. bracket...

Mine is positive cable to positive terminal, negative cable to negative terminal and inductive pickup on the #1.

[Wes85L]

Well what is weird is in the manual I guess they screwed up and at the start it says something like "For steps 3 and 4 below follow our revised steps 3 and 4 here" which happen to be the way I'm doing it. I guess I could try it the other way. Actually I notice now that it says above their revision "For 12 Volt Positive Ground Electrical Systems" so it's more like an add-on to their original instructions.

I guess I was doing it the other way when it was working for me. And saw that revision and without thinking started doing it that way and it stopped working.

Oh, and both ways, the original and that 12v positive ground 'revised' version say not to ground either the positive or negative clip to the battery "for safety reasons". So I'd have the positive clip on the + terminal and the negative clip on the alt bracket or other engine ground but not on the negative terminal.

[Wes85L]

I just switched the clips to pos to pos. on battery and neg. to alt bracket. The light flashes as it should. My timing is at least 4 degrees off. Stock is 12 right? It's at around 8. The reason I say around is it's almost 11pm and having no airbox on the car is LOUD so as soon as I caught a glimpse I had to shut it off. Is there anything you do to quiet it down. I attempted to put a sock over the 'cap' held in place by rubber band but the car wouldn't even start like that. Also the hose that goes from the pcv to the back of the airbox is disconnected. Should it be plugged or left open? I have it plugged at the moment. Thanks

[Turbodave]

They tell you not to ground it to the battery post due to the risk of a spark igniting gas from the battery. Batteries shouldn't be giving off a lot of gas unless your really charging it up from a discharged state. I would recommend to follow their directions for safety reasons, but I can also say that I've hooked up my timing light right on the battery posts about a thousand times and am still alive to talk about it...

[Turbodave]

I just switched the clips to pos to pos. on battery and neg. to alt bracket. The light flashes as it should. My timing is at least 4 degrees off. Stock is 12 right? It's at around 8. The reason I say around is it's almost 11pm and having no airbox on the car is LOUD so as soon as I caught a glimpse I had to shut it off. Is there anything you do to quiet it down. I attempted to put a sock over it held in place by rubber band but the car wouldn't even start like that. Also the hose that goes from the pcv to the back of the airbox is disconnected. Should it be plugged or left open? I have it plugged at the moment. Thanks

you can try to put the air box on upside down, that should give you room to see the marks and quiet it down. The PCV line to the air box can just be left open when your doing this, it won't hurt anything.

[Wes85L]

Yeah, I figured that was the case. Good idea on the airbox. I guess my car is not the only one that is loud as hell without the airbox. Thank you

[Wes85L]

I set timing to 12 degrees. I was actually way off, it was set to 2 or 3 degrees! It's been running like crap forever, maybe I solved it or is that just wishful thinking, I don't know. But it is idling smoother. It is weird because since buying the car I checked/set the distributor timing and I was sure it was at 12 degrees. I made sure the bolt for the hold down clamp was tight. I'm thinking that maybe when the tranny dogbone mount went out way back when I first got the car and the whole engine was moving for a few weeks I was forced to drive it around like that it might have jolted it enough to change timing.

Update: I put it all back together, but it wouldn't start, then it sputtered and crank after crank it would sputter or start then die. I rechecked everything under the hood and it all looked good. I tried again and it started, but took about 30 seconds for the idle to settle at a steady 1100 rpm. After that it revved much smoother and idled down better too. But it still will only rev to 2800 rpm (another issue I've had). While I'm here why don't I ask what might cause this. TPS?

[88_pacifica]

steady 1100 rpm? 2800 rpm max? you're off a tooth or two on the timing belt. This would also explain being off in 3-4* increments... 3-4*= one tooth(roughly)

[Wes85L]

It's supposed to be around 8-900 rpm at idle I think. The timing belt has been loose for a long time. When the engine is not running I can push it side to side on the cam sprocket with some force. It isn't very loose; I wouldn't think it could have skipped a tooth the way it is. Maybe so though. I know I'm gonna have some fun trying to change it. Last time I tried for hours on my shadow and finally had to tow it off to a repair shop because I couldn't get the belt on at the same time the two dots on the sprockets were aligned. They kept moving. Was a major pita.

[mcsvt]

Sadly the belt can skip a tooth even with a decent tension. It just happens sometimes. It's worth checking out for sure.

Glad you go the timing light working

[Wes85L]

Oh and is there any chance the tps could be playing some role in the rev issue? I realize I won't know for sure until the belt is where it needs to be. I'm just curious for the time being. The previous owner told me it needed replacing when I bought it.

Thanks guys

[turbovanman²]

Use the timing light to check your cam timing. Disconnect the coolant sensor and then shine the light on the front of the cam pulley. The oval hole should be almost at 12 oclock but wont' be exactly as your base timing is at 12 deg. One tooth is something like 18 deg.

[88_pacifica]

Use the timing light to check your cam timing. Disconnect the coolant sensor and then shine the light on the front of the cam pulley. The oval hole should be almost at 12 oclock but wont' be exactly as your base timing is at 12 deg. One tooth is something like 18 deg.

Hey Simon... How many times have you quoted this paragraph in the last week or two?

[Wes85L]

I'm struggling with the steering pump right now. I can't figure out how to get it to pivot enough to remove the belt and I loosened both the upper locking bolt and pivot bolt which on my Shadow for instance would have done it and belt removal would've been easy. But for some reason it won't budge. I even loosened the two bolts on the pump bracket near the lower timing belt cover and still no movement. Looks like I'm not touching the timing belt til tomorrow, but it's late so I'm gonna wrap it up.

[88_pacifica]

The lower "pivot bolt" you are talking about is actually an "L" shaped bolt that is threaded from the backside by the firewall. You have to remove that nut to allow it to "swing forward." 13 mm ratchet wrench makes quick work of that.

[turbovanman²]

Hey Simon... How many times have you quoted this paragraph in the last week or two?

No kidding huh,

[Turbodave]

I'm struggling with the steering pump right now. I can't figure out how to get it to pivot enough to remove the belt and I loosened both the upper locking bolt and pivot bolt which on my Shadow for instance would have done it and belt removal would've been easy. But for some reason it won't budge. I even loosened the two bolts on the pump bracket near the lower timing belt cover and still no movement. Looks like I'm not touching the timing belt til tomorrow, but it's late so I'm gonna wrap it up.

When I'm doing a timing belt I usually just cheat and take off the crank pulley without loosening the ps belt, you can usually get it back on that way also, saves a decent amount of time.

[BadAssPerformance]

When I'm doing a timing belt I usually just cheat and take off the crank pulley without loosening the ps belt, you can usually get it back on that way also, saves a decent amount of time.

power steering?

[turbovanman²]

When I'm doing a timing belt I usually just cheat and take off the crank pulley without loosening the ps belt, you can usually get it back on that way also, saves a decent amount of time.

Ditto, if the belts are to be reused, thats what I do, saves alot of time.