Does anyone know what the timing is supposed to be set on the 235? I have the #1 piston at TDC and the pointer is pointing at the steel ball. How much is is total advance supposed to be? New engine professional rebuild and is driving me nuts. After the car warms up when you gas it it makes a diesel rattle sound low in the engine (This sound does not come from the valve area and only does it after it has warmed up. Makes no noise when it is cold). My engine builder says it is labor knock whatever that means and he says I have a timing issue. I can put the car in 3rd and gas it and no valve rattle at all. Any ideas? Mike

 

Do you have the stock distributor? Can you see the mechanical advance unit working? Mine likes a lot of advance. I cannot get a measurement on mine. I advance it at idle until it pings/runs poorly and I retard it slightly. Then with the mechanical advance it runs great.

 

Greg, Yes it is the stock distributor that was just rebuilt by grossmuellers and the original motor. You can see the distributor move when you throttle up so the vacumn advance is working. How do you see if the mechanical is working other than with a timing light? Thanks for the help. Mike

 

The mechanical I'm referring to is just the module on the side of the dizzy. If you can see the dizzy move when you increase the throttle it's usually fine. I've never been able to see my mark on the flywheel. Roy posted a great description teaching me how to time by ear and I've used that method for years. Again advance timing very slowly until it pings/runs rough and retard the dizzy 1/16-1/8 of a revolution, mine runs best at 1/16 of a turn counter clockwise.

Note. I've had advance modules go out sporatically. They seem to work when adjusting but under load did not advance. NAPA carries replacements at a reasonable cost and usually no wait time.

 

Mine also required lots of advance. There is a BB in the flywheel. Took me a while to find mine but when I did I used a small paint brush and painted it white. After I 'timed' mine I had to set the advance (the moveable piece on the distributor base) as far as it would go towards advance. It ran fine and did not ping at all.

 

When I had my 54, I could never "time" it according to the books.

Like others here, I advanced it till it pinged, then cranked it back a tad.

They like a LOT of advance too. Never could figure out that flywheel "BB" thing.

Chuck

 

Be sure that the advance bracket is not binding against the side of the block. This will produce loss of power and poor operation at speed. The advance bracket position can be adjusted independent to the distributor.

 

I think I was the last one asking how to set the timing correctly about two months ago. I would set the timing and it had absolutely no power, popped and banged, etc., which as very frustrating.

I did exactly as Greg, Chuck and Dave said. First I set the line on the vacuum bracket to the line on the pad and locked it down with the bolt. Then I loosened up the vacuum advance clamp screw that grabs the distributor shaft. I rotated the distributor counter clockwise at idle until it started missing and I thought it was going to die, backed it off just a touch, tightened the clamp screw down and now it runs great.

When adjusting you need to make sure you have loosened up the vacuum advance clamp screw enough to keep from rotating the vacuum advance unit so that you are actually moving the distributor inside the vacuum advance clamp when setting the timing. Otherwise, as soon as you tighten it down and let go of the distributor it snaps back.

Sorry for the DIST-101 post, but some reading this may not fully understand how to set it. And maybe someone else can tell me if I'm screwed up!

RG

 

Thanks for all the replies. Great information and several things I will check for if I can ever get off work at a decent hour One thing a little unsure of is when you say to advance until you get ping? Does this mean at idle you will get the ping or during a test drive after advancing the timing? Thanks

 

Ping under a test drive, then back off 1/16.

Changing point gap will also change timing, so set points first!! At least for most cars...

 

I advanced mine at idle until it wouldn't run, backed it off just a touch until it would run and locked it down. Any less than that and it ran like crap.

RG

 

Well its gone from bad to worse. I had the distributor rebuilt and noticed today it had a very slight wobble when the car was running so I decided to remove it and look for problems. When I pulled it up it came apart. I am holding the head of the distributor in my hands and the shaft is in the block and wiil not come out. It will move up about a half inch but then stops. This is just about to push me over the edge. $3000.00 into a motor rebuild and it runs worse than before I had it rebuilt. Any ideas why the shaft will not come out? Mike

 

See if you can rotate the engine backwards by inserting 2 bolts into the harmonic balancer where the puller would attach that are long enough to stick out at least 1.5 inches. I think they are 5/16 or 3/8 inch course threads. Take a pry bar or large screwdriver and use it to rotate the crankshaft counter clockwise by prying between the two bolts with the spark plugs out. It shouldn't take a lot of effort.

Have someone pull on the shaft as you rotate it backwards. That might help loosen up the shaft by "unscrewing" it out of the cam gear and releasing it from the oil pump.

Keep us posted.

 

Well after supper I decided to give it another try and was able to remove the shaft from the engine. No harm done except for the dizzy. its going back to rebuilder tomorrow. Anyone know where to get a new vacuum advance unit? Greg said he was able to get them at NAPA but could not remember the NAPA number I checked with NAPA and they could not find it. Mine works fine it just has a lot of up and down play which seems to me would allow the dizzy to move up and down. I noticed when I started the car with the rebuilt dizzy it had a slight wobble but the rebuilder said that it was OK. I now think there was a problem after all.

Randy the rocker arm company you suggested for rebuild in CA did a great job and it oils very well now. Thanks for the tip.
Mike