Another timing question

[65Vart]

Hey guys,
I decided to throw a timing light on my 273 finally months after upgrading the ignition to electronic and ballparking it by ear. The car runs good , starts good but I was curious so I pulled out the tlight. Timing tag is readable on the left side of the water pump, but I can't see a mark on the balancer. I know the Balancer has one and it's not painted in. Like I said the car runs great but I need to find out what it is set at. Could the moron who built this motor lined up the balancer wrong (not at TDC).....weird one.

 

[MVRCorp]

The timing mark is on the outer part of the balancer mounted on rubber. It's not uncommon for it to slip in relation to the inner balancer. Your balancer is bad. Replace it. It happened to me on my 67 273.

My $0.02 worth. Jim

 

[65Vart]

The timing mark is on the outer part of the balancer mounted on rubber. It's not uncommon for it to slip in relation to the inner balancer. Your balancer is bad. Replace it. It happened to me on my 67 273.

My $0.02 worth. Jim

Thanks Jim, This balancer has a line (score) right across the outer casing just like a newer one. Just can't see it to adjust the timing when the car is runnning. I guess the best thing might be to line it up by hand and check #1 cyl or the rotor direction.

 

[pettybludart]

Hey Vart,I used a yellow marker to mark my balancer(easy to see)also through a good vacuum gauge on there when tuning!There a must for tuning properly!

 

[Dusterdude72]

as said before...run a yellow or white mark on the balancer.....make sure your lights on your number one wire and make sure you dont have it set to the wrong number of cylinders on your timing gun. also, there should not have been a way to set the ballancer off tdc as it should be key wayed...unless of course your keyway is sheerd...in wich case you have some work ahead of you lol. but i doubt that. if anything,when your bulder was building your engine,he may have not aligned the cam sprocket correctly with the crank sprocket wich would show your timing as off. I do timing the old school way. pull number one cylinder spark plug,put finger over the hole, then either arc at cylinoid with a screw driver or have someone bump the ignition for you until you pop off the compression stroke (TDC) then make sure your rotor on your distributer is pointing at the correct cylinder. toss the plug back in,put your cap on and your on time!.....look at your balancer mark and see if it is set on the timing tab for tdc....if it is not,then someone set your engine up wrong.....or your screwed up on one of the steps I mentioned somehow lol.... old school way of doing it (yes) but a very effective and easy way none the less if you are trouble shooting ....and without having to use vacume gauge or and other speacialty tools. you should need no tools at all doing it the way I mention,not even a timing light unless you want to set the time to a specific advance/retard degree....hope this helps and that may help you solve your problem, good luck!