Re: Timing Chain Jumped

[Les Singh <Les.Singh@xxxxxxxxx>]

>
>>I have an '85 Spider Veloce with about 120,000 miles and one night it
>stalled
>>just after start up and after I had let out the clutch and went about five
>>feet (no romping ... just a regular easy start). The engine seemed to be
>>running perfectly before it died. There were not any funny sounds which
>came
>>from the engine as it died. Anyway, to make a long story short, I did some
>>troubleshooting and figured out that the timing is way off. When the #1
>>cylinder is at TDC, the rotor contact is pointing at the #4 spark plug
>contact
>>point or 1/4 revolution of the distributor from where the #1 spark plug
>>contact point is. Is it a reasonable assumption to say the timing chain
>jumped
>>a gear (or broke)? Any other possibilities? Any suggestions on a fix?
>
>

The distributor has a dog-drive with two lugs sticking out the bottom of
the shaft. These engage slots in the top of the oil pump via which the
drive comes to the distributor. The lugs and slots are asymmetric so
theoretically it should not be possible to install the distributor 180
degrees out but there is enough slop in that tunnel for this to happen.
However, at some time the dog will jump out and realign itself and then the
rotor will point to #4 instead of #1. 

Easy fix - swop #1 and #4,  #2 and #3. Proper fix - get the engine to
initial advance point - "F" on the front pulley, reinsert the distributor
with rotor pointing to #1. Timing will now be approximately correct. Start
and retime the engine accurately using a Xenon light.

Les - happiness is a GTV to play with

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