i have a 94 mustang gt i recently removed the dist to replace leaky intake gaskets. nowthe car seems to respond a little more sluggish than before and idles a little rougher than beforebut still makes plenty of power. i was looking at the balancer and saw the timing marks on it butwas wondering which was the correct stationary tab to read off of, the chiltons manual was not really any help, one tab is closer to the top and says "time" it is flat, andthere is also what looks likea peep hole to the left of it (passenger side)which one should i use? and how far should i advance it? with these upgrades cause i know you're gonna ask.... headers, off road h pipe, dual flowmasters,cobra upper/lower, 70 mm t.b., 24 lb injectors with pro flo calibrated mass air meter, cold air intake,ported polished 351w heads (gasket matched to lower intake), ford racing E303 roller cam, roller rockers,a swanson performance chip, 3.73's,an MSD blaster coil pack (ignition module is stock), a/c delete, smog pump delete, and under drive pulleys, most all of this was already on the car when i purchased it about 2 years ago, so i cant really take credit for it. and i do have a timing light , any info would be helpful... thanks

 

oh and i also have a 160* thermostat and a griffin dual core aluminum radiator, dont know if that matters

 

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You don't use the lil hole, it's for a magnetic timing probe. Use the pointer like in the pic below.

 

you probably have the dizzy off a tooth or two...line pointer up on tdc with 0 on the balancer making sure #1 cyl is at tdc and restab dizzy and then pull spout and set timing to a base of 10 degrees

 

ok thanks ill give it a shot today see what happens

 

hope it works out for ya!!

 

ok when timing do i want to use the btdc? i started moving it toward 0 and to the atdc and it started backfiring. im pretty sure its the BTDC numbers to use, but just wanted to make sure

 

to the left is retarding it and to the right advance = btdc

 

ok thanks , i had to remove my underdrive pulleys and re-install my factory pulleys (waterpump pulley was too big could not get light in to see anything). upon removing the crank pulley i noticed the outer ring on my balancer had been hitting my pulley making a mark on it, not all the way around just on half of it. is this a sign of the ring slipping giving me false readings? this car is also not the smoothest reving. could this also causevibrations?should i just go ahead and replace the balancer to be safe?

 

Sounds like you may need a new balancer. There is a ring of rubber in the center of the balancer that can wear and cause the out side to spin on the inner piece. This will obviously throw off you timing and cause some vibration. I wouldn't drive the car until you get a new one. It puts more wear on the bearings because your crank is flexing more since the balance is now off. You might as well spend the extra cash and get a fluid dampener instead of replacing it with a standard harmonic balancer.