Timing plate location 1988 Mighty Max 2.6L

[Vanderbot]

I for the life of me cannot find the timing plate or notches for the engine, I've never adjusted timing before but I have the equipment for it. I have a Haynes manual which describes the process but includes NO pictures of it. If anyone has the same engine can they please take a picture of their timing plate/notches?

[geezer101]

Hi and welcome to mightyram. All of the timing marks for the crank pulley are on the bottom half of the timing cover (either on the die cast cover on the G54B 2.6 engine or on the plastic cover on both the G63B 2.0 or the FI 4G64 2.4) facing upwards. A tip - once you have pointed your timing light down there and know that you're in factory specs you can tune these by feel (the timing light is more of a diagnostic tool that'll let you know if something is wrong with either the base timing or a fluctuation from an ignition fault). Under gap your plugs by 0.15mm, loosen the distributor nut with the engine running and maybe have a pair of extra hands on standby to keep your engine running @ 2000 rpm. Gently swing the distributor between retard/advance until you get a spike in rpm, back it off a tiny bit and lock it up. You should have an improvement in midrange power and some hidden performance across the rpm range.

[geezer101]

On a youtube vid (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FBxhgjVbLU). If you ignition coil is original I'd recommend you replace it before tuning. Coils have a working lifespan of 10-15 years before they break down. Symptoms are sluggish starts, poor fuel economy and loss of midrange to top end performance. Replace the ballast resistor with it as a cracked ballast resistor results in a no run situation when it's hot :thumbup:

[Vanderbot]

Thank you for the responses, I've been having an erratic idle and I haven't found a vacuum leak yet so I am assuming its either the ignition timing, or valve clearances. The spark plugs and distributor cap are recently replaced.

[geezer101]

Check the distributor. The counterweight springs can disconnect or break and that will definitely be a symptom of what you're experiencing. Give it's innards a blast of WD40 before proceeding. The mechanisms might be binding up.