With the battery disconnected, remove the leading plug from the front=20 (number one) rotor housing. The one right behind the belt pulley. If you hav= e a=20 good feel of things, wet your thumb and place it over the hole and rock the=20 engine over suspected TDC. With a bit of practice you can get TDC on the but= ton=20 that way. Or, screw some food grade clear plastic hose (Sears) into the plug= =20 hole. Place the end of the hose against the under side of your tongue, and r= ock=20 the engine back and forth over suspected TDC. Or, pour some ATF into the sam= e=20 tube, but let it sag so as to form a "P" trap. Like the drain under the sink= .=20 Rock the engine over suspected TDC, just a degree or so in each directi= on,=20 and look for that location where the ATF does not move. That is TDC.

Or take out both plugs. Place the engine at suspected TDC. Make up a=20 pointer that points to the flexplate teeth at some location where you could=20= see=20 it with the engine running. Turn the engine backwards until you see an apex=20= seal=20 in the bottom plug hole. Center that seal in the center of the hole. Make a=20 chalk mark on the tooth next to the pointer. Look in the top plug hole.=20 Turn the engine in the forward direction until you see an apex seal in=20= the=20 center of the upper plug hole. Mark the tooth next to the pointer.

TDC is half way between those two chalk marks. Count back to the TDC to= oth=20 from both marked teeth to be sure that you are looking at the same tooth.

Do it a few times and play with the pointer so as to come out pointing=20= at a=20 full tooth or between two teeth if you like that better. Once you are h= appy=20 that you have repeatability and are accurate, paint the TDC tooth red.

Now count the teeth on the flexplate. Divide into 360 to get degrees pe= r=20 tooth. Turn the engine backwards from TDC the number of teeth that will prod= uce=20 the timing you want. Say 24 degrees. That might be about 12 or 14 teeth= .=20 Paint the full advance tooth bright white. You can paint other teeth other=20 colors to indicate other amounts of advance if that is helpful. Make a paint= dot=20 on the bell housing and indicate what lead each color represents.

Now without turning the engine at all, make up a steel permanent pointe= r=20 that points at the total advance tooth. Bolt it on. Safety wire it. Aluminum= =20 pointers fatigue to death and vanish.

Lynn E. Hanover

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