Need help with my 4a-c engine

[jeenyus]

I checked my ignition timing today and it was way off. I adjusted the distributor as far as it will go and the mark on the pulley is still about an inch and a half away from the scale. Any ideas why?
Jason

[ZDoman]

Are you sure the checker was on the 1st spark wire?
Otherways you should pull out the distributor and put it back into the next teeth.

jeenyus Wrote:I checked my ignition timing today and it was way off. I adjusted the distributor as far as it will go and the mark on the pulley is still about an inch and a half away from the scale. Any ideas why?
Jason

[jeenyus]

Is that easy enough for me to do? anything important I should note before attempting? Thanks

Jason

[jondee86]

Chances of the distributor jumping a tooth are slim. I think
you would be better off checking to see if the cam belt has
jumped a few teeth. That will put your cam timing out, which
will in turn throw your ignition timing out (I assume the dist
is driven off the camshaft).

Cheers... jondee86

[jeenyus]

jondee86
Yah your probably right but I already took the dist. out and put it in the next teeth. Now I have no idea how to make sure it's in the correct teeth or not and I don't remember which way I turned it in the first place. Can anyone help me?

[jeenyus]

Thanks for the help so far,
Jason

[jeenyus]

I set the engine to TDC and put the dist. back in with the rotor pointing at the #1 cylinders wire. I also tried turning the crankshaft to observe how long the dist rotor took to start moving and it moved the second I turned crank shaft. So I don't think the timing belt's even loose. Now I can't even get it to start. It will turn over until the battery charger goes dead. I tested my fuel pump and it's working. My spark plugs and wires look good. I've changed the carb. I'm beginning to think it's just blow-by. The engine does have 321000kms.

Has anyone had a problem similar to this?

Thanks,
Jason

[jondee86]

Well, you could try doing a compression test to see if you have any

Looking at your pics it seems the 4AC has an "all-in-one" electronic
distributor, as in, coil, igniter and distributor built as a single unit. That
should be a pretty reliable unit, so the thing to do is see if it is making
any spark. Pull one plug and attach it to the lead. Rest the metal end
of the plug on some handy metal part of the head, and crank.

You should see a regular blue spark jumping from the centre electrode
to the earth strap. Weak orange, or irregular spark is not good.

Helps if all your leads and the outside of the high tension end of the
distributor are clean and dry. And don't crank your engine endlessly if
it won't start. If it doesn't show any sign of life after a couple of short
cranking sessions, turn it off and keep looking for problems.

If you have good spark, then you need to check that it is happening at
about the right time on the right cylinder. Anywhere between 10 deg
and 20 deg before top dead centre on the compression stroke should
be enough to get the thing running.

I don't know if that type of distributor will make a spark if you turn the
engine over with a ratchet on the crank pulley nut ?? You need to have
the ignition on, and inch the pulley towards TDC (plugs out and lying
on some earthed part of the engine). If you are lucky, you should see
a spark from each plug as it's respective cylinder reaches TDC.

Once you know you have spark in the hole at roughly the right time
on each cylinder, bang in some fresh plugs, put in a fully charged
battery, get some jumper leads and hook up another battery, then
fire it up

Cheers... jondee86

[jeenyus]

I've done all of the above. So I'm thinking that the timing belt may have slipped. Is there a way of checking to see if the valves are opening at the right time?

Thanks,
Jason

[jeenyus]

I finally figured it out! It was the timing belt it either jumped five teeth or someone put it on wrong.

Thanks for all the help.

Jason