Reading the timing scale

[Col 190]

Hi

I'm sure I'm a little stupid for not being able to work this out but ... how do I read the timing scale (1989 190 2.0 Stromberg Carb UNleaded)? I've been told it should be 5 deg BTDC at idle, currently it is on the bar to the left of the "3" but this does not look like a normal degrees scale. What am I missing here?
From memory the scale looks something like this:
I0I1I0I2I0I3I ... etc

Thanks for any help!

Colin

 

[Ian B Walker]

The best way to time these engines is with a strobe light. Your numbers refer to BTDC ie No 5 is 5 degrees BTDC. When using the strobe make sure that the vacumm pipe to the distributor is disconnected and blanked off. Hope that helps.

 

[Col 190]

More timing questions

Cheers Ian

I understand how to use the strobe light but I don't know how to interpret the result. It strobes so the pointer is pointing to the left of the '3' on the timing scale but where the '5' is on the scale looks to be much larger than 5 degrees. So I am still a little confused.

Thanks for the tip about the vacuum hose - I was not doing that when I measured the timing.

Thanks again

Col