I have a weird timing issue

[Scaramoche]

Ok fill ya in.

 

last year i rebuilt the motor, installed all my self, but had a Mechanic friend do installation of distributor, and time it. Either way, I havent had issues since, it runs strong, and thought the only thing i had left to do was pass emissions. So taking the advice of you folks, ive been installing all my smog gear, 02, and new cat(still waiting on this). Either way, this weekend i finally purchased a timing light....and.......was completly stunned. There were no timing marks lighting up. After further investigation (flashed the light under the truck) I found them at the bottom of the enginer. What am i missing? how can i be running? is it an issue of with dizzy installed wrong?

 

please help, im completly lost

[jj big shoe]

If the crank damper on your 89 is like the one on my 87, there are six bolts holding the pulley to the damper. If so, it's easy to mount the pulley wrong if they were separated during the build. Either that or you have the timing light hooked to the wrong plug?

[MY1PATH]

either that or your cam gears are 180* off (since you said it was running well) but I'd go with option #1 above tho assuming you connected to the passeger fwd plug (#1)

 

iirc when the keyway on the balancer is pointed @ 10:30ish your marks should be facing up and it should be pointing somewhere on 0 side of the marks not the higher side.

so remove the balncer bolt ro reveal the keyway and remove the pullies (6 small bolts) and position them accordingly.

[Scaramoche]

either that or your cam gears are 180* off (since you said it was running well) but I'd go with option #1 above tho assuming you connected to the passeger fwd plug (#1)

 

iirc when the keyway on the balancer is pointed @ 10:30ish your marks should be facing up and it should be pointing somewhere on 0 side of the marks not the higher side.

so remove the balncer bolt ro reveal the keyway and remove the pullies (6 small bolts) and position them accordingly.

 

thanks guys.

 

I'm almost positive the dampner is installed wrong. I know cause after doing timing belt(i lined everything up, verified teeth count etc, cause i didnt want to do it wrong) I basically slapped on the dampner. Infact thinking back i remember vaguely wondering about that. So tomorrow(just had tooth pulled) Ill fix that.

 

thanks again

scara

[ANDY]

so if the pulley with the timing marks is put on wrong you wont beable to set timing?

[jj big shoe]

Nope, not with a timing light. The light flashes when the #1 spark plug fires, which should be when the correct mark (12 to 15 degrees or so for our trucks) on the crank pulley is lined up with the pointer on the timing cover. If the pulley is in the wrong position, the light will still fire at the same time but you wouldn't have the correct reference point on the pulley to go by. The harmonic balancer is keyed to the crank therefore it can't be installed in the wrong position but it seems a lot of the early WD21s had a seperate pulley that bolted onto the balancer so it's easy to mount it wrong. Newer engines have the balancer and pulley as one piece or the timing marks are on the balancer instead of the pulley.

[ANDY]

oh alright well when ever i get done with my TB whine ill have my co worker check it out for me. hope im not too off

[Scaramoche]

UPDATE:

 

Yup that was the problem. I set tdc, verified my dizzy was correct(which it was) and sure enough the pully was wrong. I unbolted 6 bolts, lined up, and wham...i can time it.

 

thanks again guys.

 

funny how this thing isnt keyed lol