You can't. Valve timing and ignition timing are two different things. Plus, if it did slip, it will slip again. Fix it right.
Copy. My main concern right now is gettin her started just enough for me to drive here it a mile to my place. Worst case scenario I’ll have it towed. Once I have the car at my place I can take my time and sleep at night
Sounds like the roll pin holding gear sheared. That is unusual. I have heard of HV/HP oil pumps causing it, but I doubt that in your case.
IF the chain was really loose or jumped teeth and valve touched a piston, wouldn't that be enough to snap the roll pin? Delco dist pins are abt half the dia of MSD's.
If the timing chain jumped it is easy to tell as long as you are getting spark and you have a timing change. If the timing was set correctly and then the chain jumped the timing mark will have retarded about 16 or 18*, I forget which. It goes by the tooth count of the timing chain divided into 360* if it happened to jump 2 teeth it would double that and maybe that is what happened. However if it only jumped 1 tooth you can just reset your timing to something close to the normal position and the engine should run but it will be way down on power it you try to get moving in a hurry. It should run well enough to drive a bit. Been there done that. I can't really say what it will do if it jumped twice already or two teeth at one time. As mentioned the plastic teeth on those factory gears usually fall apart as the years go by.
Update for you wonderful people. I shoved a screwdriver down the dizzy hole and I did see the timing chain move a bit. I researched online and saw that people did a test using the crank bolt and finding tdc that way, keep eye on the rotor and turn it the opposite way and see how long it takes for the rotor to move the opposite way. I don’t know want to say it was immediate but I also don’t wanna say it took way to long. Hard to tell but I finally put everything back together with the new dizzy and she started very rough until I rotated the dizzy a slight bit and got it to run decently. The idle was very high due to the fact that I thought the idle screw on the carburetor would make the engine run smoother Once I got the timing right. So I lowered the idle and she stopped running. I moved the dizzy a bit more and got here to start again and adjusted the screw once more and once she was good I put the timing light on it and got it to tdc as much as I could. I shut the car off tightened down the hold down bolt and started it once more. Idling was smooth so I decided to take her home. After a few turns and 1/2 mile home she started misfiring and running extremely rough. I gave her some gas (not too much) and then it Gave some backfire through the exhaust so I decided to pull over and as soon as I did she shut off. Had to get it towed back home and now I’m Back to square one. I hope this gives you guys some more insight and possibly have seen something like this before. At this point once I get a few extra bucks and some more time I’ll look into changing the timing chain but I’m afraid that won’t be enough. It’s always something with this car, can’t catch a break. Thanks again guys
Now that the car is home, you can relax and breathe It does sound like it needs a timing chain and gears, they're not expensive, but the labor to access the chain and gears is a bit tedious, lotsa stuff to remove to get to it, plus draining the coolant. You don't say where you live, if you were close by, hell I'd do the labor for you for free, I just like helping people out Another operation that should be done while doing this is drop the oil pan to remove the plastic bits of cam gear teeth that have fallen into the oil pan, if you leave them there, they will get sucked up into the pick up screen, clogging it, then the bypass will open and the oil pump will suck plastic bit into the pump, NOT GOOD Do not drive the car anymore, the timing cover has to come off, just ask here for help if yah need too, were more than willing Thank you for serving, stay safe Jimmy
Thank you Mark. I am actually stationed in Phoenix and I would definitely need a hand . I did some research as to what you said as far as the parts being inexpensive but a lot of labor. This is something I must do piece by piece. Unfortunately with work, school, and the family I barely have any time to work on it but I’ll manage to find time. I guess my next question is what is the place to start? I see that my alternator and brackets need to come off as well as the water pump so I am assuming that maybe draining the coolant out is step 1? What is the easiest and cleanest way to do this? I live in an apartment complex and the property manager gets pissy if he sees people working on their vehicles. Thank you again
Also I have seen that people recommend taking the oil pan as you mentioned but I know there is like a crossmember frame over it, not sure if that’s something difficult to remove.
Since you’re in AZ, you’re nice and close to getting all the parts you may need (TA Performance is in Scottsdale). I just recently replaced my timing set and gears, they had everything I needed. If you do pull your timing cover to replace the chain, no need to pull the oil pan (to start at least). The 350 has two bolts in the front lip of the oil pan that go into the timing cover from the bottom, make sure to remove them when you get to pulling the timing cover. Once you’re in there, if the cam shaft snout gear is shot (damaged nylon gear or a badly worn metal gear), you might want to clean the pan of any debris. TA has new distributor drive gears. I pulled the rad shroud, then the fan. Alternator comes out, bracket can stay on, pull the belts off for your PS and alt. Drain your coolant. Fuel pump comes off. I set it to TDC on compression stroke before pulling the balancer and bolt. To do this as cleanly as possible, jack up the rear of your vehicle (safely) when you drain your coolant, this helps drain more coolant from the block. You can put the rear back on the ground once it’s drained. If you do this properly, when the timing cover comes off, it won’t spill coolant from the passages in the block. I also dropped my oil before pulling the timing cover, but not sure this was necessary. Definitely change oil before you fire it up. Water pump can stay on the timing cover and come off as a single unit, I believe the WP bolts are all smaller head size so it should be easy to see which ones stay. Pay particular attention to the timing cover bolts and make sure they are all out. Clean around the oil pump on the timing cover, and behind where the fuel pump mounts. There are a few that can be tricky to locate - around where the oil pump and fuel pump mount. Hope this helps. Edit - I also bought a chassis manual for my car, helps give a good idea on order of operations when pulling the front of the motor off (and many other repairs). Money well spent!
I was not aware TA was out here. I have purchased a few parts from them over the years. I definitely will check them out. Thank you Sir for the advice I will start messing with a few parts today. Fuel pump I figured may have to be removed and I was thinking of replacing it as well since it will be off. Water pump can remain attached is something very helpful would not have guessed that.
If you remove the fuel pump, you may be able to push/pull the timing chain to determine its condition. Possibly get a peek at the gear teeth too. Good bright light and a small mirror may help.
Not much to add, Craig did a nice list. Removing the water pump usually results in a few broken bolts so it is best to leave it alone. You should create a new post asking for help in the Phoenix area. Someone may be close.
On the topic of checking for chain stretch, I had success lining up the balancer mark to zero and then turning the opposite direction. I noted about 10-12 degrees before the rotor actually started to move. (It moved slightly when I first changed direction but moved in earnest around 10-12 degrees on the balancer) Chain had not skipped any teeth, when I was trying to time the engine, the balancer mark was fluctuating significantly, making it tough to dial in.
Hello guys, I did get the timing set. I will begin the process today but I have been looking at videos for this. I cannot seem to find a good video reference to remove the harmonic balancer. I’ve seen people use a fancy tool which I do not have. Is there a different way to remove the balancer?
