Method Of Timing

[Woody Branham]

I am told that to find TDC you can remove a small plug behind the # 6 cylinder, drop a long dowel in there and turn the engine by hand til the dowel reaches the highest level. That done, the rotor should be at the 7:00 position abd you can run the wires from there. I did that on my p11 and the rotor points to 4:00 ????

[grey beard]

Hi Woody,

You are correct except for one caveat - both numbers one and six come to top dead center at the same time. One will be on compression and the other on the exhaust stroke. The distributor rotor only passes the 7 o'clock position once every TWO crank revolutions. This means you need to be certain which stroke you are on when you are on TDC. JMHO

Good luck:)

[greg g]

Well, the 7 o'clock position presupposes the oil pump and distributor were indexed correctly had the engine benn rebuilt and or the oilpump replaced. I would assure that #1 is at TDC on compression as TDC happens twice, once at compression and once at exhaust. Easy way to tell is to pull the plug and place your thumb over the hole while bumping the engine. the compression stroke will begin to puch you thumb off the hole as compression builds. When you sense the pressure, continue to turn the engine over by hand til the pointers line up with TDC on the crank pully. Now not the position of the rotor and make this #1. then follow the firing order around clockwise for the rest of the wires. I believe # 6 is at TDC exhaust when #1 is at Compression TDC. In any case no matter what cap tower the rotor is pointing to if you make that one #1 you should be good to go.