- 1). Start the engine and allow the vehicle to warm up for approximately five minutes. Shut the engine off.
- 2). Pull the hood release lever located beneath the dash on the driver's side. Depress the auxiliary hood release latch beneath the front tip of the hood and lift it. Prop the hood up using the hood support rod.
- 3). Put on a pair of safety glasses and connect the positive (red) and negative (black) leads from a timing light to the positive and negative terminals on the engine battery.
- 4). Connect the inductive pickup clamp from the timing light to the number one spark plug wire. The number one spark plug wire is the wire that connects to the spark plug nearest the driver's side of the vehicle (on the right side of the vehicle).
- 5). Locate the distributor. The distributor is a cylindrical unit approximately six inches long, located on the left side of the engine. Follow each one of the four spark plug wires to find the distributor.
- 6). Start the engine and point the timing light towards the crankshaft pulley in the lower portion of the engine on the passenger's side. There is a small gap between the engine mount and power steering pump through which you can view the harmonic balancer and timing belt. The timing light will flash each time the number one spark plug fires, illuminating the area.
- 7). Locate the colored marks on the harmonic balancer and the arrow pointer on the engine block. When you adjust the timing the colored marks on the harmonic balancer will move. The mark nearest the back of the vehicle represents zero degrees before top dead center (0BTDC), the mark below it is 14 degrees BTDC, the mark below that is 16 degrees BTDC and the final mark is 18 degrees BTDC. Make a note of the current ignition timing.
- 8). Set the timing light down and loosen the three distributor mounting bolts at the base of the unit with a ratchet. Do not remove them; simply loosen them so that you can rotate the distributor.
- 9). Rotate the distributor counter-clockwise to advance the timing or clockwise to retard the timing.
- 10
Hold the distributor in place and check the engine timing using the timing light. Make a note of engine timing. Continue adjusting the distributor until you are happy with the engine timing. - 11
Tighten the distributor mounting bolts and shut off the engine. Disconnect the timing light.
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