Timing light?

[marc_scirocco at sympatico.ca (Mtl-Marc)]

Here are my .02 on timing.

I was told by a very knowledgeable VW mechanic, with formal trainig at a
specialized school and at VW, about how he did it on his VWs, and that this
process cames from manufacturing when they setup new designs.

He was using a vacuum meter for seting the timing. He peaked the vacuum by
advancing the distributor, the backed it out to lower the vacuum by 1" of
vacuum. Voil?.

I always did it like that, and I never had a chance to measure how much
degree it comes too, but the car runs strong. So it works for me.

Cheers.

Marc
'83 Scirocco
'97 A4 Q

> 
> The adjustment on the timing light will offset the flash of the light to
> the number of degrees that you set it.
> 
>  So, lets say you want to set the car to 10 degrees btdc (before top dead
> center).
> 
>  Find the TDC (zero) mark on the flywheel, and set the light to fire at
> 10. When the TDC mark on the flywheel appears in the flash of the timing
> light, it means you've got your distributor set at 10 degrees btdc. That's
> it.
> 
>  If you are setting the car to factory specifications (6 btdc, IIRC), you
> don't need an adjustable timing light at all. VW has conveniently placed
> another timing mark on the flywheel for you at 6 btdc, so you just set the
> distributor such that the flash of a non-adjustable light shows the 6 btdc
> mark. (If you have an adjustable light, set it to zero)
> 
>  If you want to get fancy, cou can also use the 6 btdc mark on the
> flywheel for other settings too. Just add 6 to whatever your timing light
> is set to. So, for our previous example where we want 10 degrees btdc, use
> the 6 degree timing mark, and set the light to fire at 4 degrees. Now,
> when the light fires on that mark, your 6 btdc mark will actually show up
> as 6+4=10 btdc.
> 
>  Make sense?
> 
>  No matter what you do, make 100% sure you know which marks on the
> flywheel are which. My lightened flywheel actually came with three marks
> on it for some reason. For a while, I was using the wrong one and I can't
> tell you how frustrated I was getting trying to figure out why my car
> wasn't running as good as it should!
> 
>  Neal
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Julie Macfarlane <juliemac57@hotmail.com>
> To: juliemac57@hotmail.com; scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 09:52:33
> Subject: RE: Timing light?
> 
> Soooo. No one knows how to use the variable timing light?
> 
> >Having dropped a BFH on the pick up of my (only) 20 year old timing
> light,
> >I had to borrow a friends. It is adjustable timimng.
> >How do I use this?
> >I got the basic timing done (and it was a HUGE difference), it runs a LOT
> >smoother.
> >
> >
> >
> >Julie Macfarlane
> >"Its not just a car! Its an adventure!"
> >DSM4 entry: "Masochism: See Scirocco"
> >1981 MKI 2L 16v w 2Y
> >1985 MKII 1.8L 8v w 9A Wolfsburg
> >Amsterdam NY
> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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