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MG TD TF 1500 - Equipment 102

Equipment 102

I bought what I thought was a good digital timing light from Sears. It was erratic at best so I exchanged it for another that has the same problems.

At idle I can see the mark clearly except every few seconds it seems to miss a beat and the mark shows up about a inch further back on the pulley (towards the passenger side).

If I rev it up to 3,000 rpm and try to read it (about 30-36 degrees) the timing mark is all over the place.

I have tried different positions along the spark plug wire to no avail.

Once again, is it me or just cheap equipment.

If it is the equipment, any suggestions for a good one would be appreciated.

Mobius strikes again!

Thanks,
Mort
Mort (50 TD "Mobius")

Mort,
How tight are your distributer bushings? Do you have any axial play on your cam? Does the cap fit tightly? It sounds like your timing really is jumping arrround. I'm assuming you have a dial advance light?
-David
D. Sander

I'm with Dave, it may well be the car, not the light. If you can find another car with a distributor, try it on that. Do you have points or electronic?
George Butz

Is this a fancy digital light or an old-school analog? Solid-core wires make a lot of noise!
Rob Edwards

The distributor was recently rebuilt by Jeff at Advanced. It was curved for the supercharger. It seems to be on tight with no play. It also has an pertronix electronic ignition.

It is a digital timing light.

As I recall my plug and coil wires are stranded.

I like the idea of trying it on another car. I've got a 99 Ford Explorer to try it on.


Mort (50 TD "Mobius")

I think the explorer may not have a distributer. Are the cap and rotor on tight? You must have the red rotor, right?
-David
D. Sander

Not saying this will solve your problem, but, strange as it might sound, I had the same experience once on an old 32 Chevy and found it was interference from an internal arcing generator. It made the T light go all over the place. Drove me goofy until I found out the cause. PJ
PSJ

Try getting a reading from the number 4 plug wire. It fires in the same location and will be farther from the generator. I have found that the new fancy smansy digital advance light I bought will not give a correct RPM reading on solid core wires. Use my old analog light on the T's. It will work just fine on carbon core wires. How many miles do you have on the points? If that is what you have in there?
L E D LaVerne

I was told that you need resistor plugs for inductive lights.

Jim
J Barry

This thread was discussed between 13/09/2012 and 14/09/2012

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