Well, now I'm confused.  In the first post you said you couldn't get the
timing right because the vacuum advance can hit the cold start valve, but
here you say you set the timing to 7 degrees BTDC.  Since 7 degrees BTDC
*is* correct timing for this engine, you can understand my confusion.

Also, if the engine was running fine before you started messing around,
there's only two explanations: 1) there's something wrong with the new
distributor, or 2) your messing around has messed something up.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how the re-assembly of a distributor
(your new rebuilt one) could result in a 25 degree "off" situation with the
timing.  Do you still have the old distributor?  Can you place them
side-by-side, both with rotors aimed at the #1 timing notch, and look at the
drive dogs and see a difference?
----------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young
Lafayette, CA 94549
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathaniel Poole" <npoole@TELUS.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 9:20 PM
Subject: Ignition problem now worse

> I'm officially stumped. I made sure the distributor drive gear is
> installed
> correctly as per Bentley, double-checked TDC according to valves and
> piston.
> Made sure rotor is pointing to correct cylinder (#1) at TDC, am getting
> good
> spark, set timing at 7 degrees BTDC while turning it over