mattkoly

It's done by the manufacturer if you purchase the correct harmonic balancer.

Venomantidote95

I have never seen one that wasnt marked! just sayin.

mattkoly

It is marked just not in the right place. He didn't say it wasn't marked. Just that his tdc is at 40 degrees on his current HB.

Venomantidote95

yes the only person that said anything about having to mark anything was you?! this has nothing to do with the OP!

tomc3

I think I am not looking at this right (not a car noob, but been many years since I dealt with timing, distributors, etc....think the 60's and my 69 camaro!).

I'm going to get out a timing light and check timing first. I was using the distributor as the ref, vs the harmonic balancer, so I think I got some "larnin'" to do.

I suspect the balancer is fine, I suspect my knowledge is NOT!

Lemme get more data, then I'll post up....

Venomantidote95

no problem man just check it out and get it right! you referance the balancer to the timing pointer on the timing cover, (bolted on for you people with the SA comments) and use the timing light hooked to the number 1 plug wire! then turn the dis to obtain the correct ignition timing!

Jfsram

This would only be true if the car was set to zero degrees of ignition timing.

Not a good way to check the balancer mark.

Best way is to use a positive piston stop. Remove the number one spark plug. Install a positive stop. Gentle rotate the crank until it touches the stop.
When it does. Mark the balancer.
Rotate it the opposite direction. When it touches the stop. True Top Dead Center will be exactly half way between your two marks.

tomc3

O.K......spent some "quality time" with the new car....here's the real deal:

The summit balancer has 3 different timing marks on their balancer. I was looking at the marks on the FRONT (towards the front of the car), vs looking BEHIND those marks to the 2ND set of marks at the BACK of the balancer..............yeesh!

So - to recap - I'm a bonehead!

Once I figured out to use the back marks, it lined up perfectly (front mark showed 40). I used the sbftech site to get the new distributor installed and aligned perfectly, then started the car and set timing at 10 deg with my sears timing light I bought back in the 70's (I have not used this since that time - score one for stuff that was built right back then!).

wow....that was more painful than I imagined, but if I had tried to do this without "teh innernetz", I'd be in a world of hurt! Thanks to all for the advice - chalk this up to NOOB-i-do!