Setting timing without pointer
The pointer can be anywhere handy. Just fab a bracket, with a point that's "in a handy spot."
If you are using the later water pump, etc, you'll want it on the driver's side, if the earlier pump, the opposite.
Now buy or make a piston stop:
Some of the commercial ones, like shown, don't have a means to lock the plunger, so it's important to do so....lock nut, tack weld, whatever. Once you set the plunger for length, you don't want it to move
The length is not all that important. You are not trying to stop the piston at TDC and in fact, could not. Pull the no 1 plug, and disconnect battery for safety. Insert the device, and play with plunger depth some until you get the engine to stop with a wrench. Be careful, you don't want to damage / break a piston.
When you get the length usable, the piston will stop at some depth "coming up." Make a temporary mark exactly under your new pointer. Take your time, and be accurate.
Now rotate the engine counter clockwise, until it again stops. Make a second mark as before. TDC will be exactly halfway between these marks, so measure it out and check your work
You can check the accuracy of your timing tape by calculating how many "inches per degree" your balancer is. Measure this out on the balancer, carefully with a small flexible tape. You can NOT use dividers, you must measure "around" the wheel. Calculate some handy figure, such as 40 degrees from TDC and mark that. Then, the TDC and the 40 from your tape should line up.
Never in my life, have I ever used tape. I always just measure it off --- Check and mark TDC, then measure and mark 40 Scribe it, using a scribe and small square, and then a small triangular file to deepen. Then you can use dividers to divide the distance between TDC and 40 in half, which gives you 20 marks. Take this and ADD another 20 to the 40 to give you 60. Then divide again for your 10 marks. You can check this accuracy by "going both ways" with the dividers.
That is, after you mark the 20 mark from 40, then put the dividers on TDC and check the 20 mark. This should meet the mark, proving that your 40 to 20 is the same as TDC to 20, and so on.
This is my old piston stop for SB Mopars I made way back in the 70's
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=234202
The pointer can be anywhere handy. Just fab a bracket, with a point that's "in a handy spot."
If you are using the later water pump, etc, you'll want it on the driver's side, if the earlier pump, the opposite.
Now buy or make a piston stop:
Some of the commercial ones, like shown, don't have a means to lock the plunger, so it's important to do so....lock nut, tack weld, whatever. Once you set the plunger for length, you don't want it to move
The length is not all that important. You are not trying to stop the piston at TDC and in fact, could not. Pull the no 1 plug, and disconnect battery for safety. Insert the device, and play with plunger depth some until you get the engine to stop with a wrench. Be careful, you don't want to damage / break a piston.
When you get the length usable, the piston will stop at some depth "coming up." Make a temporary mark exactly under your new pointer. Take your time, and be accurate.
Now rotate the engine counter clockwise, until it again stops. Make a second mark as before. TDC will be exactly halfway between these marks, so measure it out and check your work
You can check the accuracy of your timing tape by calculating how many "inches per degree" your balancer is. Measure this out on the balancer, carefully with a small flexible tape. You can NOT use dividers, you must measure "around" the wheel. Calculate some handy figure, such as 40 degrees from TDC and mark that. Then, the TDC and the 40 from your tape should line up.
Never in my life, have I ever used tape. I always just measure it off --- Check and mark TDC, then measure and mark 40 Scribe it, using a scribe and small square, and then a small triangular file to deepen. Then you can use dividers to divide the distance between TDC and 40 in half, which gives you 20 marks. Take this and ADD another 20 to the 40 to give you 60. Then divide again for your 10 marks. You can check this accuracy by "going both ways" with the dividers.
That is, after you mark the 20 mark from 40, then put the dividers on TDC and check the 20 mark. This should meet the mark, proving that your 40 to 20 is the same as TDC to 20, and so on.
This is my old piston stop for SB Mopars I made way back in the 70's
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=234202
