Ok, well, I am reading the Haynes manual.  It says to pull the #1
plug, and rotate the engine until you feel compression, then pull the
old one, and put the new one on.  So fine.  But then it says to do a
basic static engine time by rotating to the 7.5 before mark, then
adjust the position of the distributor as needed.  So I kinda do need
the timing mark before I use the timing light.

but, I now have a new problem to boot :

I can't turn the engine by hand more than about half a rotation.
(i.e. half way around the distributor).  I tried the Haynes trick of
putting it in 4th and pushing it forward (at least as much as I
could, give my limited strength and a semi-flat tire.) and the engine
does keep turning,   So - is that a "normal" amount of play in an
engine?  Is there something else wrong?

I am going to recheck all of this (and reinflate the tire) the next
time I have a chance to work on things, but any help would be
appreciated before then.

Thanks again,

David.

On Jul 24, 2007, at 6:08 PM, Zoltan wrote:

> The TDC is where the #1 is on top when the valves are closed.  OK?
> And only then put the distributore in the right place.  The mark on
> the pulley will be important when you use the timing light.
> Z
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Johnson"
> <davidj@ELPASOTEL.NET>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 4:54 PM
> Subject: Timing Mark
>
>
>> Ok, so I am slowly putting my '80 Westy back together after an engine
>> fire.  I followed the Haynes guide for this since it was a little
>> more detailed than the Bentley, and after putting on a new timing
>> scale, I tried to look for a farking timing mark on the pulley.  I
>> took the dang housing cover completely off, and finally after looking
>> and feeling around the pulley, I found this little tiny sort of
>> dimple on the inner rim of the pulley that looks like someone had
>> scraped clean at one point.  Since I know a repair job shortly before
>> the fire resulted in the engine being retimed, I assumed this was the
>> mark, set it to TDC, took note of where the rotor was, roughly where
>> the vacuum advance was, and successfully swapped in the new
>> distributor.
>>
>> Now, having said all that, I am pondering if that was really the
>> timing mark, and if I did something else.  Of course, once the fuel
>> ring is rebuilt and the wiring harness put back on, I suppose I will
>> be able to tell more readily, huh?  But if anyone with wisdom on an
>> aircooled could offer any critiques, ideas, or things I missed, I
>> would be glad.  I can at least guarantee that the rotor is on the
>> correct side of the distributor relative to where it was, and the
>> thing is in place about where it was before.  So as long as nothing
>> else is utterly FUBAR the engine should at some point start and keep
>> running long enough to properly time it, right?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> David
>> '80 Westy (Blue Midget) slowly coming back from the brink.
>>
>>
>> --
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>>
>
>