I've had this adjustable vac advance kit on my car all winter, but haven't had much of a chance to drive it, until now. When I bought the kit, I put the silver springs on it (middle tension?) and it pinged like a diesel this past week when I opened it up on the road. I immediately went home and put the blue springs on (high tension), and it seemed to help a LOT.....but I sense a little pinging every once in a while when I romp it and wind it out. Ok, since I have the heavy springs on it and it still pings a bit, does this mean I have to start playing with the adjustable vac canister? It's got that allen wrench that I can put into the hole and turn it in or out depending on what I need, but what does that do? I have it turned all the way in now. Is that bad? The directions were worthless.
What is the initial advance? How about total advance? Maybe you should check these out first. Got a timing light? A dial back one will help to check total advance, otherwise you'll have to add more marks to the balancer. I think Larry knows how to mark it. Anyway, check this stuff with a light to see if you have trouble. If you have to much total advance, and its coming in to quick, that'll cause some pinging. As will to much initial. Sound right guys?
12* initial..... Not sure of total yet. If I was getting too much total, how does one limit the total advance?
Adam, There are 2 ways to adjust the vacuum advance. One is the actual amount of advance. This is done with the small black cam, that came with the kit. Crane tells you to mount it to one of the cannister attachment screws. Dave does it a better way. He drills and taps a hole, and mounts the cam ahead of the pin, instead of behind it. Have you done this, or has Dave done it? The other way to adjust it is with the allen wrench. This adjusts the rate of advance, or how it responds to different levels of vacuum. You want the vacuum advance to go away quickly when you punch the gas. Inside the cannister is a spring that OPPOSES the vacuum pull. By making the spring tension higher(Turn allen wrench CCW), you make the vacuum requirement to advance the timing higher. If you have to turn the allen wrench more than 10-12 turns CCW to stop the pinging, you need to reduce the amount of vacuum degrees. Dave usually adds about 8-10* Try running the car with the vacuum disconnected. Does it still ping? If so, you need to back off the total initial+mechanical. If it doesn't, connect the vacuum, and start adjusting. First the rate, then the amount if you cant stop the pinging with the allen adjustment.
That's exactly the answer I was looking for. Thanks Larry. I'll tinkering for a while this week, so I'll see what I can do to get rid of it.
