unable to set timing properly

[Abilio Marques]

Got my hands on a timing light. Hooked up as the Honda manual suggests (jumper clip across the 2 terminal connector under the glove box). Turned on the engine, let it warm up, hooked the thing, got a weird result.

1. For a 1997 Honda Accord, the timing is within specs
2. For a 1998 Honda Civic, the lines are waaaaay out. I added some new paint to the lines, and when I try to find them, they are like 45 degrees off (retarded). I tried moving the distributor, but didn’t manage to get them closer than… lets say 30 degrees before I hit the limit of the adjustment.

I did the timing belt myself about a year ago (less than 15000 miles ago), the car is running fine (engine has 110 thousand miles on it). I was very careful that the things were perfectly aligned when I put the belt.

The distributor is directly attached to the camshaft, and I believe it has only one way to come in.

Is it possible that something is wrong with the engine? Or is the timing light who is at fault? (it has no adjustment knobs or anything).

PS: is a stock D16Y engine, and I hooked it up to the 1st spark plug cable

Topic

[angelo paloumbis]

check the harmonic balancer sounds like it “spun” on the pulley meaningn the rubber insulator has gave out.

[EricTheCarGuy]

First, you should never need to adjust ignition timing unless you removed or moved the distributor for some reason. If you’re trying to solve a performance issue, you may want to look elsewhere. More info on that here.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-performance-issues

That said, there are 2 sets of marks on the crank pulley. Be sure you’re using the correct ones. Also be sure you’re on #1 cylinder wire which is closest to the pulleys on the engine opposite the transmission.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Abilio Marques]

Mechanics have removed it at least once to address an oil leak (replacing the o-ring that seals the distributor to camshaft union). I was actually just testing the timing light, and found that according to that, the spark is like 30 degrees retarded (the marks appear way to the left in a counterclockwise rotating pulley).

The car runs fine, so I first tried to blame the lamp, but then I tested it on another car (besides the first Honda Accord), and the marks were where expected. That leaves me with either a huge timing problem, or a pulley that moved far away from where is supposed to be (but I don’t know how, as there is the woodruff key that theoretically should keep the pulley from spining.

By two sets of marks, I hope you mean a single one that identifies TDC and the 3 lines clustered that I guess would be for the 10, 12 and 14 degrees (and it has to be set on 12). I actually repainted those lines. Am I mistaken? Are there more than 2 sets of groups of marks?

[Abilio Marques]

Ok, half of the mistery solved. Took out the spark plug #1. Put a long stick down the spark plug hole, and slowly cranked the engine by hand, watching the stick go up. Top dead center didn’t correspond to the marks at the pulley.

Went further and removed the valve cover. The timing belt seems to be at the right position, as the marks in the camshaft pulley align when the piston gets all the way up.

So it seems the pulley marks are off. The only explanation for that is that the crankshaft pulley is not at the proper position, but now, what I don’t understand is… why? I mean, isn’t there a key that holds it in place so it wont rotate? As far as I remember, I did put the key in place and everything was perfectly aligned back then.

Any explanations?

PS: if I get the time, I think I’m going to remove the belts and the pulley in order to check what happened

PS2: I’m gonna leave this tread as it is now, and I’m going to open a new one looking for the reason it got out of position (is located here: http://www.ericthecarguy.com/forum/8-Service-and-Repair-Questions-Answered-Here/53468-misaligned-crankshaft-pulley-harmonic-balancer)

[Author]

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