226 Flathead timing.

[Johnshipiii]

I’m back, lol. I have a ‘46 226 G Flathead. (Distributor on front of Block behind fan) . Looking at setting distributor brake and timing. Manual talks about mounting distributor to a dealer tool/device to set timing external from car. Obviously do not own this device. Any advice on setting timing and vacuum brake is much appreciated! Thanks in Advance!

 

[bubba22349]

Ok here is one way you can try. You need to find out if there is a timing mark on the Dampner and pointer on the engine front cover to use. Also you need a piston stop to see if that timing Mark is correct or else make a mark and pointer to use you can buy one or make one out of an old spark plug shell. You will need to use a degree wheel, some timing degree tape on the Dampner or else make some addistional timing marks on the Dampner so you can determine the advance that's in the distributor is correctly being set. Turn the engine so that it's set to the correct base timing amount to your pointer. You can then use a test light to set the distributor so that the points are just starting to open. For the vacuum break timing adavance with the engine running you could use a tach & dwell meter to see that the engine RPM matches correctly to the advance, along with a timing light to see if the adistional timing marks line up with the pointer. Other than that you also could send it off to someone like site member wsa111 that has a business for recurveing distributors with his distributor machine. Best of luck

 

[REMYRANGE]

I think I know what your talking about. I have a 226h, for mine to set the Spring tension correctly for the vacuum advance there is, or was, a machine they attached the distributor too to test the tension based upon the amount of vacuum. I don't believe there is an easy way to do this yourself unless you build your own vacuum system that simulates the right amount of suction, and have a precision spring tension tester. Mine seems to work ok. I dont think the spring tension is a huge deal for vacuum advance, but I could be wrong. Now timing for the flywheel damper is another story, for my 226h there are two marks, and depending on the size of damper, you use either left or right mark.