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Anyone have a good tip for protecting the timing light pickup from heat? An asbestos sock of some sort you could slide down over the pickup or something?
Mine got too toasty and before I buy a new one I don’t want a repeat performance.
I have a super skinny RED zip tie attached to #1 under the vertical shielding, remove one wing bolt from top shielding cover and swing vertical shielding back just a little...
Zip Tie right there so no need to think about what gray wire,,,lol
The Innovate/Bosch timing guns have a metal clamp.......it has saved my *** a few times already.......
I am usually very aware of where the clamp is and how it falls but I occasionally get distracted.......
Don't really agree with that last post. The pickup is inside the clamp. That ferris core. It must be clamped over the wire to read. I always clamp on right next to the distributor. So I only need to take the top distributor cover off. I never touch the side vertical covers so my pickup is always very near other wires. But only clamped onto number 1.
were only just reading timing with a inductive pickup here. Not driving around. Never once in 50 years has this given me an issue.
My point was that if you put the pickup and it's ferrite core down by the spark plug versus up near the distributor the readings "should be" the same. Up near the distributor it is more possible to get a cross fire from another wire near the pickup especially when working with a small top distributor. It IS possible to get a nearby wire to trigger the timing light, I have seen it on some cheaper timing lights. Down by the plug there is less risk of this but more potential to get burned on the exhaust manifold or header.
In my 50 years of working on engines I have only burnt one or two pickups due to excessive heat. I am still using an old Sears Timing light from the 1970's which works like new and has the original spark plug wire clamp assembly.
I had one of those old Sears timing lights. (Aluminium case and all!) I purchased it in the early 70's. I bought a lot of Sears Craftsman tools when I was a apprentice mechanic and had very little money. Mine died in the early 90's if I remember correctly and was replaced with the Snap On light I still have. (Plastic housing). (6 times the price).
funny thing is, it's in my home tool box nowadays. Not much use for a timing light at work nowadays.
All this new stuff runs off a crank position sensor and we set timing on the laptop.
I just now remembered where I got the notion of having the pickup near the plug. I had a flashback of the first timing light I used a million years ago, my old man’s Crafstman (?) with the spring where you removed the plug wire from the plug, put the timing pickup spring on the plug, and then put the plug wire on the spring. I guess I related that to having the pickup close to the plug and I’ve been doing it that way since. Weird how the mind works sometimes.
Well…I picked up a new timing light, an Innova digital model with advance and rpm. Supposed to be a decent light, was ~$100 or so. Clipped it on the #1 wire a few inches from the dizzy, had at least 1” clearance to any other wires or anything, really. Tried it, nothing at first, then a couple flashes here and there, then nothing again. Tried moving the pickup around, checked the direction, nothing. Moved to #2 wire, got more flashes but still obviously skipping some.
Went online checked EVERYTHING, no dice.
On a whim, I put the pickup down next to the #1 plug, bingo! Worked perfect, steady, nice as you please, good rpm reading. So I had to zip tie the pickup so it was sort of dangling centered between the header tubes to keep it from getting roasted, but I got it timed. Good grief!
[QUOTE=wwiiavfan;1606497859]I just now remembered where I got the notion of having the pickup near the plug. I had a flashback of the first timing light I used a million years ago, my old man’s Crafstman (?) with the spring where you removed the plug wire from the plug, put the timing pickup spring on the plug, and then put the plug wire on the spring. I guess I related that to having the pickup close to the plug and I’ve been doing it that way since. Weird how the mind works sometimes.[/QUO
This was my dad`s light that I used and it still works .
Timing light pickup protection
