Okay, after reading on how to properly read my light, initial timing is at 12ish. Total timing is only at 21. I know those numbers dont seem right, but the car behaves ok at this point. starts right up no problem. However I do feel a performance loss over what it was at. Before I had it more advanced.

 

21 degrees total is horrible. big power loss with that. you need to get that into the upper 30's for a stock headed SBF.

what kind of distributor are you using?

i have a hard time believing your mechanical advance is only swinging 9 degrees. something's wrong.

 

I completely agree! It just doesn't seem right.

It seems to be a stock dizzy. The vac can has two ports on it. One straight out the can and one pointing up. I am hooked up to the First one.

Another thing is when looking at the damper with the gun, the mark seems to jump forward or backward every so often. I'm attributing this to worn rubber.
Like I said in the first post, I did check the 0 tdc with the actual piston and It was correct.

Now what! Springs on the weights? Can I take the springs off and see what happens?

 

i'm not sure how you verified the timing marks without pulling the heads...

if your damper is the source of the timing jumping around, you may have an issue.

the springs only effect the rate at which the mechanical advance works. they shouldn't effect the total advance.

are you positive you are at 21 degrees total? are you using the light correctly? you might consider just getting some tape. it's not that expensive.

i'm not familiar enough with the factory distributor to help you debug what may or may not be a dizzy problem.

 

Fair enough. You helped a lot even if we haven't quite figured it out!

Can I go old school and advance it as much as I wants without pinging or detonation?

 

When using your light there is an arrow on the inductive clip that you put on the plug wire, make sure the arrow is facing the spark plug.

Now make sure that the bolt is still tight enough where the dizzy wont move on its own but you can turn it with a little effort.

You can NOT change timing just by changing your dial on your light. I might be reading it wrong but it kinda seems like you are trying it like that instead of manually turning your dizzy. Auto Parts store guys give bad info all the time, when I bought my light the guy told me to buy the digital advanced light because I could time my car without touching the dizzy. Needless to say, I didnt buy there ~cough-Autozone-cough~

With your light set to 0 check your timing for the 10 mark in white, now change your light to 10, the mark should be lined up with the arrow now.

After you confirm that set your light back down to 0

Now turn it a little bit till you get to about 13-15 or so where it runs well still.

Once there increase your rpms to about 3000 to see where your total mechanical advance is, this is done with the vacuum line off like said before.

If you total isnt getting up to around 32'ish then you have something wrong with the dizzy.


Thats just a recap, if you have done all this then you should think about a new distributor.


There are lots of vids online to help you figure out a timing light too a little better.
Here is one of em.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YTb6JGCXH0

 

Just a small bit of advice...make sure your vacuum lines from your dizzy are hooked up correctly. The one pointing towards the radiator is hooked up to throttle vacuum (carburetor) the one pointing up is hooked up to your intake manifold (one of the tree's coming out of your intake manifold.)
I had this problem before....It will change the way your engine is supposed to run. therefor not giving you an accurate base to start off with.
Hope this helps.

 

Lmao!
I know I cannot time the motor with the light dial! Hahahahah good call just in case I was that dumb.

I did not know about the one way on the clip. Good to know.

I barely crack the Bolt loose so I gotcha there.

I always start with the gun at 0. For the initial timing I am beyond marks on the damper so I use the dial at that point to get an accurate read if 15. The motor wants more! I promise. 15 was conservative as a just in case something was wrong like the damper is "wiggly"!

Now for the total advance. I don't have a tach so I just revved her up to where I was comfortable leaning over the engine bay and shot the marker. Obviously the line was way off the markers, I then turn the dial on the gun to only read mid 20's.

All of this with the vacuum lines plugged off.

I will do all this again and again until it makes sense. I am also going to buy a tach to help. Need one anyway!

What dizzy would you suggest?

I feel I understand the basic consept after reading 18 articles since last night! I'm just not getting the numbers I think I should get. I'm curious about my damper being off?

 

"With your light set to 0 check your timing for the 10 mark in white, now change your light to 10, the mark should be lined up with the arrow now."

This doesn't make sense. Gun at 0, timing marked in white at 10. Ok. Now if I just turn the dial to 10 it should change the light shot on the damper from 10 to 20 which at that point we won't see the whit mark on the damper. Right?

 

Would it hurt to plug the one pointing straight up! It also looks like its behind the diaphragm in comparison to the one pointing at the radiator which is the one I use.

Also I read an article advising to use direct vacuum on all vac adv dizzies and not the throttle vacuum.

And start debate.... Now.