navybee
Hello all,
A little background first. Last year, my distributor ate my cam gear and timed the engine at 10 degrees.. After replacing it the jeep sat for about a year. When I tried starting it a few days ago it would crank but would not fire. I eventually tried to turn the dist. while cranking the engine and it fired right up and retimed it at 10 again. When I shut the engine off it would not fire, I had to do the same thing again. It looked like it was at about 20 degrees or so while looking with the timing light or about 2 inches below the the last timing mark. Any suggestions on what is causing this? Thanks for any suggestions.
Rob
tufcj
How old is the timing set, how many miles? Some engines from the late 70s had upper timing gears with nylon teeth. Once the gear and chain are worn, they can skip one tooth at a time, which would cause you to have to turn the distributor to get the spark timing back.
Take the distributor cap off and put a socket on the crank bolt. Rock the crank each direction until the rotor starts to turn. If you get more than about 10 degrees of crank rotation without the rotor turning, then the timing set is probably shot.
If you didn't replace the cam and distributor gears as a set, you need to go in there to replace the cam gear anyway.
Bob
tufcj
navybee
Thanks for the advice. I went ahead and pulled the cover and looked at the chain. Remembered that I put a new chain on when I replaced the gears. The timing marks are lined up when at TDC. So I am back at square one. Any more suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Rob
tufcj
Long shot, but while the cover is off, pull the gear and fuel pump eccentric and make sure both woodruff keys are there and intact. Possibly one is sheared or missing, allowing the cam gear to slip. There are 2 slots and 2 keys in the cam.
Bob
tufcj
