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Re: Timing Wierdness...

To: Bill Babcock <BillB@bnj.com>
Subject: Re: Timing Wierdness...
From: Tom Strange <jantoms@vbe.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 17:17:44 -0700
Cc: tr list <triumphs@Autox.Team.Net>
Organization: Classic Autosports Ltd
References: <9102C93ABBDED011B33600805FC105B616DAFC@SCARAB>
Bill,
  You're absolutely right about the dist.  I'm working on a couple cranks
right now & had another thought in mind when I replied.  I was way off base
on my answer of the crank.
  Time to slow down & think before I write.
  Good comments on your part.
Tom Strange, Classic Autosports Ltd., Appleton, Wi.,  920-733-5013

Bill Babcock wrote:

> Your distributor cap has little or nothing to do with timing for an
> individual cylinder--it's the cam lobe that actuates the points that
> decides timing. No big surprise that your timing is off if you have a
> lucas distributor. The bushings are questionable, and the machining is
> imprecise. You could also have a bent distributor shaft and/or worn
> lobes. I don't know how many lobes the distributor has on a six cylinder
> engine, but the critical question is whether or not the same lobe
> triggers the 1 and 6 spark. The answer is probably not.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Lang [mailto:LANG@ISIS.MIT.EDU]
> Sent: Friday, October 23, 1998 12:34 PM
> To: fot@autox.team.net; triumphs@autox.team.net
> Subject: Timing Wierdness...
>
> Hi,
>
> I've been playing with timing lights on my TR6... it's running better
> now, but there's still a little "miss" on steady throttle - no doubt a
> vacuum leak somewhere, but things are generally better.
>
> And now the Triumph driving season marches toward the end-o-year...
> sniff.
>
> At any rate, while poking around looking for reasons for some slight
> mis-fires, I wound up placing the timing light pickup on each of the 6
> spark plug leads to see if there was some wierdness going on there. I
> did
> not find anything wrong - the spark is very good to all six swilinders.
>
> I did observe something that was a little strange, however.
>
> Cyls. 1 and 6 are 360 out of phase... so I figure that putting a timing
> lite onto the plug wire for 6 should show up on the crank pulley with
> the
> same timing... right?
>
> Well, it looks like my cylinder 6 is about 4 degrees retarded from
> cylinder 1. That is wierd. I changed to another distributor cap,
> thinking
> that maybe my cap had some carbon tracking in there that was throwing
> things off, but the indication was exactly the same with a brand-new
> cap.
>
> Anybody have an educated guess as to why one cylinder might have the
> ignition retarded by 4 degrees or so??? I know that VW did this on the
> Type 1 to help cylinder 3 run a little cooler, but that was an
> air-cooled
> engine... but a TR6???
>
> Enquiring minds want to know. And TIA
>
> rml
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> Bob Lang                Room N42-140Q          | This space for rent.
> Consultant              MIT Computer Services  |
> Voice: (617)253-7438    FAX: (617)258-9535     |
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