Jumped timing???

[Anonymous]

Stopped on the way to work and threw in a quick $20 worth of 93octane water and about 3 miles down the road it started losing power got it to work another 3-4 miles. Took off the top of the center carb to see if it had trash in the jets or something but it was spotless but then i noticed that when i dipped my finger in the float and sniffed there was only the faintest aroma of gas. I even tasted my finger and it was basically water. well i just pulled the line off the carb and drained the tank into some 5 gall. cans i had laying around. poured in 2 gallons from another station fired her up and she ran like crap. I had to rotate the dizzy about 25* to get it back on the timing mark and she runs perfect. New double FSPP chain. Actually had to get the adv onto the other side of the dipstick to get back on the mark. How did it get that far off????????.

 

[kirkallen143]

I had a truck, same senerio, got a load of bad gas and ran like crap. Emptied tank, in with new fuel, and still ran funny after at least 2 tank fulls. Played with timing and I was down to buying another carb (figured bad gas ruined it) and low-n-behold, a vacuum plug had fallen off the original carb. Plugged it back up and never ran better, that's after I put the timing back to specs. Good luck.

Kirk

 

[Anonymous]

That's the funny thing though -how did it get so far off time. Once i put the light ot it and reset the dist. it runs perfect. I guess if it doesn't get out of time again i won't worry about it- but that part of my brain is stymied. My first thought was maybe something come up from the road and knocked the dist. around - but i have a 302 dipstick and i had to actually remove it to rotate the dizzy far enough to find the timing mark. I can't see a FSPP dbl chain with 500 miles on it jumping!!
Is it possible for the duraspark box to do something like this??

 

[JackFish]

Wouldn't a vacuum problem throw the timing out of whack?

 

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't a vacuum problem throw the timing out of whack?

If it causes a fast idle -yes it would likely advance the timing or if it is the advance line itself it would keep the timing from advancing under load.
My situation is the timing showed up to be MANY degrees retarded. and there were no vacumnn leaks and I simply advanced the timing about 30* by totating the dizzy and it runs perfect. Which means something moved either mechanically or electronically.

 

[Stubby]

The reluctor ring inside the dizzy could have turned on the shaft. There is a small roll pin that keeps it form turning on the shaft. It could rotate and cause the timing to be off. If it rotates very much the phasing of the rotor to the dist. cap will change and possibly start firing the wrong plug if it is far enough out.

The ring on the damper could have rotated. That would not cause poor performance, it would just show an inacurate reading.

The only other things that come to mind are the dowl pin in the cam and the pin in the dist. gear. The cam dowl would retard the cam also and overall power. The dist. gear would cause no oil pressure and no rotation of the dist. unless it partialy turned and fits the shaft real tight.

Is it possible that the performance has deteriorated due to the bad gas and the advanced timing is making up for this and it caused you to discover the bad damper?

I am just throwing out some ideas. I would verify the timing marks and the reluctor ring in the dizzy.

 

[Anonymous]

after getting offline i was thinking and realized of course the timing chain has nothing to do with ignition timing and on the way home car is purring then it starts to loose power and at the top of the driveway won't even run, timing seems real erratic. Get it into the garage and go in to get something to eat. Come out later, rolled it to the timing mark reset the dist. fired it up put the timing light on it and it's running perfect again--But now the dist. is turned 50*-60* in the other direction to get the marks on. Pull off the dist. cap and poke around and sure enough the 6 point star that triggers the pick-up will rotate on the dist. shaft. The pin that keys it in is ground into pieces and when it's cold it is tight enough to work but when it gets hot it loosens up and starts to wander. About the only thing under the hood that isn't new so tomorrow will replace that. Poor old 78 fairmont dist. never saw the revving ability that is now available and just couldn't keep up (literally). Especially with the lurching triggered by the tank of 93 octane H2O. Truth is, I was very relieved to find something as easy to work on ,broken.

 

[Stubby]

It's nice when things work out without a lot of headaches.

 

[Anonymous]

Called O'reilly's- new dizzy $47 -to me that's cheaper than $30 to a junk yard. (O'Rielly's 2 lights down from work- junkyard 15mles across county.) Duraspark stuff is really rather cheap-- the box was $16 new. $5 at the junkyard for the wire harness. Actually cheaper than PTX.