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Yep... a very little hole... so little that you can barely see it. I painted a white line above it and a white circle around it in order to see it better.

My friend today told me that he uses an "advance" timing light on his racing cars (Lola, etc.). He will do the timing for me... or show me how to do it. BTW, he is "building" a 1937 (?) Alfa Romeo, having restored 15 other cars including a beautiful Amilcar (all of which he still has). He knows his stuff.

As a matter of fact, I am retired... so there are many hours in the day to play with this car and do many other things as well. And once the weather turns warm... I'm outta here and heading for the Parkway.

Once again, however, I want to thank all of you for putting up with my dumb questions. I am learning, and enjoying it. Just wish I had learned all this years ago rather than some of the arcane stuff I learned in Grad school.
 
Poolboy,

I have antique plates. They come with a number of limitations, including (1) not more than 4000 miles in a year, (2) no use as a daily driver, (3) must be garaged, (4) and no more than 250 miles from home.

But they also come with benefits: (1) permanent tag; (2) no annual inspection required, (3) no local tags required, (4) a good break on my insurance.

So, I have chosen to stick with the antique plates and their restrictions. The problem is that since 1 January, despite the bad weather, I've put 1000 miles on the car.... leaving only 3000 left for the good driving season.
 
Disconnect the speedometer, or, better yet, find a spare, stick it in for 2K, put the old one back in.
Round here, there isn't a 250 range limit, as how do you drive to a meet out of state?
 
Oh, 4k a year. I misunderstood. I thought it was 1k /year. That surely wouldn't do.
 
TOC,

Could be there is an exception for driving to shows.... But I don't show my car so it is moot. I just tinker with it and drive it when I am able. I'm not surprised that there is no mileage limit out there in the "wide open spaces."

I got some good instructions from Mark Macy on finding TDC, so I'll begin with them.



Poolboy,

No, indeed, 1K would be far too little. Were that the case, I'd opt for regular plates and unlimited mileage. I may end up doing that anyway.
 
Darrell_Walker said:
There isn't any scale, so to use a timing light, you need an "advance" timing light.
Click to expand...
The scale is on the distributor. Time it "straight up" and then advance 4 degrees using the vernier on the dizzy.

But also note that the TR3 advance curve starts below idle rpm, making it rather difficult to time with a light.
 
TR3driver said:
Darrell_Walker said:
There isn't any scale, so to use a timing light, you need an "advance" timing light.
Click to expand...
The scale is on the distributor. Time it "straight up" and then advance 4 degrees using the vernier on the dizzy.

But also note that the TR3 advance curve starts below idle rpm, making it rather difficult to time with a light.
Click to expand...

Yes. I was thinking more in terms of checking the timing (does it advance, what is it at various engine speeds). But you are correct, setting "to the book" doesn't require a timing light.
 
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