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Figuring out TDC

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jerrybny

jerrybny

Jedi Knight
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Ok guys here's my question of the week. I am trying to make sure my timing is correct. However my damper has paint marks on it along with the almost unreadable original timing marks. The paint marks don't line up with the original marks. How can I determine when I am at TDC and either make sure the paint line from the previous owner is correct or do I need to make a new one. I'm not sure why the TDC paint line is different than the original mark unless when they rebuilt the engine they put the damper on incorrectly(if that's possible.) Anyways any help is much appreciated. :thumbsup:
 
I'm probably the last guy who should answer this but.........here's how I did it. Remove the #1 plug, mark your distributor body at the #1 plug wire, remove your distributor cap, turn the engine over until the rotor approaches the #1 plug wire location. Now put your thumb over the #1 plug hole, turn the engine and as the piston approaches "TDC" you should feel air pressure against your thumb.
 
The damper can only go on one way, due to the key way in the crankshaft.

If you follow Bob's directions, you should see where it lines up again, which may be a slight bit off, due to the actual distributor position being advanced to get the timing BTDC, but it won't be too much away from #1.
 
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