Timing retarding 2* after installing crank trigger

[pmrphil]

Originally Posted by Ron Finney

The statement that the distributor has nothing to do with the timing when using a crank trigger is ridiculous. How do you think the spark gets to the plug wires??? oh yeah, that is also where the timing light gets it trigger..... It is correct that the point of the crank trigger is to get an accurate timing signal by taking the timing chain variation out of the equation. However, that is only the pickup side of the equation. Unless you are using DIS, the distributor is still in the equation and it is driven by the timing chain which does have slack and does stretch. Every chain driven engine will have 1-2 degrees of slack which will retard the timing...if it gets much more than 3-4 then time for a new chain. That is why MSD is telling you to time the motor at 3000 or more, you have the slack out of the chain at that point. Your vibrating bracket doesn't sound good either, but I think you are trying to fix normal operation if you are looking at timing in an unloaded (idle) to loaded (high RPM) comparison.

Try checking your timing and then rotate the distributor a bit (either direction) and you will see that timing doesn't change (if you're using a crank trigger) the only thing that changes is the position of the rotor in relation to the plug wire tower in the cap. It has no effect on timing events until you turn the dist so far that the spark is transferred to an adjacent tower. The spark is signalled by the trigger, not the dist.