Setting the timing

[DomMINIque]

Don't one of you more knowledgable miniacs want to made a detailed post about setting the timing?
Think this will help the next sucker who has no idea what he's doing when trying to bench start a motor.

[Colin]

Till someone has the time, here is an article that seems to cover most of it:-

http://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hsx/200...29821.html

Turn the engine over until the timing mark on the crank pulley is visible. We made it easier to see by filling in the mark with a bit of Liquid Paper. You could do the same thing with a silver magic marker or a white crayon. We started the process with the mark on the third pointer on the timing chain cover.

Remove the distributor cap. The contact on the rotor should be pointing at the #1 plug terminal (use your service manual to determine the engine's firing order). Our rotor was pointing at #4, so we had to turn the engine over until we could both see the timing mark and that the rotor was pointing at #1.

When the mark was close to where it should be by turning the key, I had enough clearance to reach in and grab the crank pulley and turn it by hand. You can usually do this with the belt, too, but it was easy enough here to reach the crank pulley.

The idea here is to "sneak up" to where the points (or in our case, the electronic ignition module) make contact. Loosen the clamp on the distributor and turn it about 90 degrees in the same direction that the rotor turns. In our case, that was counterclockwise.

Connect the red lead of the multimeter to the distributor side of the ignition coil, and the black lead to a ground. Turn the distributor in the opposite direction of the rotor's rotation until 12 volts reads on the multimeter. With a test light, you'd simply stop turning the distributor when the light comes on. Tighten the distributor clamp.

On to dynamic timing: Remove the vacuum advance line (if your car is equipped with one.) Then, using the guide in your service manual, or the one affixed to the radiator support in some cars, set the idle to the recommended speed for setting the timing. Ours was 1,500 RPM.

The MG's battery is behind the seat, and the leads weren't long enough, so we used a booster pack to power the timing light. The timing light's inductive pickup clamps around the #1 plug wire. Pointing the strobe at the timing mark allows you to see how close the mark is to the fingers on the timing indicator.

Our initial static timing was pretty close, but we had to rotate the distributor a few degrees counterclockwise. In theory, this is a one-man job, but it's a lot easier if you've got some help. Be careful. The engine is hot, and there are a lot of rotating parts. Don't forget to lock the distributor down again.