[ihc] Stall at warm up/timing/dist questions

["Joseph Shaw, II" <josephshaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Okay-thanks to all of you that have helped out with this so far.

I just had something of a breakthrough, but cannot figure out why.

In going back through, and setting timing from the very start-bringing engine
to TDC, setting dist so that the rotor was set right up with #8, etc-I was
getting fire, but poor fire.  Engine would not hold idle long, was making
pooping/misfire noises, etc.  Scout would not move under its own power (died
when shifted into gear, etc).  I began going through, trying to get enough
idle to run electrical tests of the ignition components.  Most things SEEMED
to be testing out okay, though I admit it was with a typical home
tester-nothing great (sunpro).  I tried opening the air gap in the electronic
ignition more to see if that helped-didn't really, though didn't seem to
necessarily hurt.  I had also gotten underneath the front end and put white
out on the timing mark on the harmonic balancer (I think that is what the
piece is called with the timing mark on it).  Well, it always seemed to run
best when the dist was turned so far that the timing mark was OFF the scale
(toward the driver's side)-what I thought was the retarding direction.  In
exasperation, I turned it even farther, and farther, until I had moved it
almost one whole (or hole on the dist) plug wire farther forward.  I was
surprised at this-figured this much of a difference should NOT allow it to run
in both settings at all.

Now my question is this-how could it be SO far out of whack, when I had set it
manually right over number 8?

Also, it appears that when I watch the timing, I am seeing the leading edge of
the "harmonic balancer," instead of the mark, which I always thought was a
line engraved into the balancer itself.  Am I looking at the wrong mark?  I
have set literally about twenty of these in the past and never made this
mistake, but it has been a few years since I got to tinker much, so maybe I
forgot what my marker was...

Anyway, I am going to go back in, try to reset the dist BACK one tooth where
it goes into the engine, and then reset the timing again and see if this makes
it work more logically, though I don't QUITE see why it would.  Although I
don't really CARE WHY, if it helps, I am curious if this makes sense-I simply
cannot seem to wrap my head around it right now.

If it is as nice where you are as it is here, now one will be on-line to
answer this until this evening, but thought I would throw it out there in
hopes someone would have some explanation by the time I came in for the night
in a few hours.  I am sure there is some simple explanation that I am
overlooking, and still don't have the thing running RIGHT by any means-it
still hesitated HUGE when I throttled it up a bit, but would sputter over the
edge, and then when revved run great.  I know that I could just move each
spark plug wire back one notch, but then would have the thing twisted so far
it simply doesn't look right-the vac diaphragm is way up front, the dist wire
into the dist is rubbing on front of engine/water pump area, etc.  SO I am
going to try and set it properly which will leave more room for adjustments in
the future as I get it running better overall.

BTW-for anyone that hasn't been following this thread, this is on a 1975 Scout
II w/345, auto, 2WD, etc.

Thanks!

Michael