Jay,

I do mine with a cheapo Craftsman Tach/Dwell meter and timing gun.
What I do is warm the engine to normal operating temp, shut it down,
disconnect the Idle Stabilizer (left bulkhead) and plug the plugs
together, attach the tach lead to the coil, power leads to the
alternator, ground leads to the power steering pump mounting bolts, and
the timing gun lead to the number 1 plug wire (forward most right hand
cylinder)(my greasy Bentley shows the cylinder numbers on page 27 of
the Technical Data section at the back).  Restart the engine, loosen
the distributor collar bolt (10mm wrench), tweak the idle to within the
range specified on the sticker on the back of the license plate hatch
and slower turn the distributor until the v-notch on the inner most
edge of the crank pulley lines up with the case joint.  When it is
right re tighten the collar, shut the engine down and remove all the
leads.  Pretty much a no sweat deal.

Chuck
'85 Wolfsburg Westy - 'Roland the Road Buffalo'

On Aug 16, 2006, at 2:29 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Date:    Wed, 16 Aug 2006 06:39:05 -0400
> From:    Jay Brown <badkarma@TTLC.NET>
> Subject: Ignition Timing - '85 Westy
>
> I am getting ready to do a tuneup on my '85 Westy, but I can't figure
> out
> how to check the timing.  Bentley tells me to hook up test equipment
> that I
> don't have, so it's not much help.  I have a good Actron timing gun
> and a
> multi-meter with tach/dwell.  Is there any way to correctly check and
> adjust
> the timing on my van with just these tools?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Jay Brown
> '85 Westfalia
> '72 Riviera