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MG MGB Technical - Timing lights

I'm going to buy a timing light. It's for use on 8 cylinder as well as 4 cylinder engines. I'd be grateful for help on features and brands to go for and to avoid.
Marc

Timing lights by design work on 3,4,5,6,8,etc,etc,etc cyl. cars. I like the unit with an adjustment knob on the rear of the gun. As far as brand since I assume you will use it on your own cars only shop price the name brand units cost a lot more $$$$$ and for hobby use not worth the extra cash. That said if cost is no object Snap-On sells nice units and they usually have a demo unit to try RIC
R E L Lloyd

Marc, I bought the gunsons adjstable light, I think it was called 'professional'. About £70 from Halfords. Very useful when diagnosing my running problems which turned out to be Carb throttle shafts. Richard

P.S. I've still got your roof.
Richard Evans

Hello,

Beside the timimg light from Gunson, is there anybody who has experience with other Gunson products like their exhaust analyser and the carburator synchronisation products? Or are their better suppliers? I have the Gunsons easy bleed and i am satisfied with that.
Regards
Peter
Peter

Peter,

I have used the CarbBalancer and ColourTune products - CarbBalancer works very well, but I'm not convinced it's that much better than just using a length of hose and listening to the intake hiss. ColourTune is very good, but can be fiddly to use because you have to use it in cylinder 1 for the front carb, then cylinder 4 for the rear, then redo 1 to account for any changes made to the rear carb etc. Works though!

Tim.
Tim Jenner

I've had a look at some timing lights Here's the luxury one from Snapon $436 (doesn't seem to be available in UK) :-
http://buy1.snapon.com/products/diagnostics/time_mt2661ap.asp?partno=MT2261AP&DIR=catalog

Equus/Innova which seems to be well featured but available only in the USA - no price information:-
http://www.timinglight.com/hi-tech/index.htm


Gunsons at http://www.gunsons.co.uk/ (you have to go in through the KAL products link as the timimg lights link is not working)

Drapers in the UK, all the functions of the Snapon - including tacho but at only £114:-
http://www.justoffbase-tools.co.uk/tools.asp?parent=2I4037P1064M0 It appears to be the same product as the Equus/Innova

It looks as if the only way to get a timing light with a tacho at less than £120 ($175) is to go for a Drapers or else pay well over $400. Obviously no contest and I couldn't afford more anyway - and the Drapers is not an awful lot more than the Halfords Pro. Drapers is a well-respected firm in the UK.
Does this sound right or am I missing something?
If the Drapers is the same as the Equus then it has a dual display so that one can view tacho and advance information at the same time instead of having to switch displays. This is not possible with the Snapon and there is no information about the Gunson display. The Gunsons with tacho is £340 -($540)

By the way, the British websites look positively amateurish compared to the glossy and very informative sites of the US firms.
Marc

Hi all.

My local garage used to hire out a quality timing light, useful for something that doesn't get used very often....

Don
Don

...500¤ for a timing light...
Call me old-fashioned, but unless you are working with a bunch of different cars, you could save the money for a dial-in timing light by putting a few (well thought off) extra marks on your pulley and use a cheap or used one along with a multimeter for dwell and revs.
Regards,
Jochen
Jochen Beyer

I'd think a long time before I spent $175.00 on a timing light, as far as haveing a tach built into the timing light do you really need one ? Buy an inexpencive timing light and an inexpencive
tach if one breaks at least the other one won't have to be sent back for repair. Ask yourself how often will I use it. The advace/retard knob is great but if you only work on one car a degree wheel and some white paint will work.A stand alone tach is useful for other jobs where you don't need your expencive timing light resting on the fender of a running car.
RIC
R E L Lloyd

www.Sears.com has their adjustable timing light with inductive pick-up for $69 US. Nice tool, metal body, etc. I got mine for $59 on sale. Well worth it. Cliff
Cliff Maddox

This thread was discussed between 27/09/2003 and 28/09/2003

MG MGB Technical index

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