nicrguy1966

No significant problem, except that any time anyone (including me) tries to set the timing to the "correct" place, the car runs like a dog. On my last drive, it wouldn't start for the return trip until I did a roadside adjustment to the dizzy back to the "wrong" setting that the car actually needs to run smoothly. I'm also assuming that if it really is at 20 degrees BTDC, I losing power (but without a rolling road, I have no way to know for sure).

I'll try to find out if the timing marks are way off this weekend. Having had a little play with the dizzy (static), I'm fairly happy that nothing major is wrong with it. Also, when setting it with the strobe at idle, the timing was regular and stable, no variation. Electronic ignition should reduce the chance of "points gaps" changing and I detected no play in the spindle when checking that the rotor arm had some "spring" in it. I'll give it some revs to check the centrifugal advance is doing something this weekend (and give it some oil in all the right places too). I'm also treating it to a new rotor arm and cap. With all this love, it will think it's got a new owner! Based on all the feedback so far, I'm actually hoping the timing marks are off as then I'll know it's probably correctly tuned and there's nothing else to worry about. If the timing marks are in the correct place, I'll be scratching my head for what else to try. I'll post here once I've looked at the timing marks compared to where I think TDC is as soon as I've completed my investigation.

Unless the timing marks on my pulley are way off, retarding to stop pinking is the complete opposite of how my car is tuned! It's so far advanced it's making me nervous!

Maybe I need to invest in super unleaded then try again. Given the low mileage I do, it will not make much difference to the total cost of ownership. The difference between normal unleaded and super unleaded plus an additive could be huge. When set "by ear", mine ticks over quite happily at 600 rpm!

I have plenty of old sparkplugs, they seem to breed!

I'll be taking a close look at the pulley this weekend, and also trying to set the crank to TDC to see what the timing marks say. Hopefully I'll be able to find TDC (or near enough) by feeling the position of the piston through the sparkplug hole (using a screwdriver as I don't have a piston stop), but otherwise I may have to remove the timing chain cover (which I really would prefer to avoid!). I'll report back when I've done this.

Can the "correct" setting be as different as 12 degrees and 20 degrees?

Great! I can cross out my to-do list and just consider this normal for today's conditions! I've got my weekend back! Thanks!

So what is the general opinion on the correct timing for our cars with modern fuel?

So if it's workng OK, don't worry about what the strobe says? That only works if every mechanic that tries to "tune" the vehicle in the future doesn't set it to factory defaults and make the car undrivable!

Yes, I was confused by this too. The timing strobe was firing correctly at the factory settings, so the spark was reaching the sparkplug. Given the amount of effort to check the fitment of the distributor, this will be towards the end of my to-do list! (and I still don't fully understand how fitting the distributor one tooth out would cause the symptoms I'm seeing).

It's not that I don't believe anything anyone has written, the more suggestions the better. I need a to-do list of things to try. It was easy to test the vacuum and centrifugal functions, so I did that straight away. I'll need a bit more time to try and figure out if the timing marks on the pully have moved, so that's a job for the weekend.

So if I understand you correctly, if the distributor is fitted "one tooth out", when at "factory recommended timing" the rotor arm will be in the wrong position for the connection on the inside of the distributor cap. By changing the timing several degrees more Advance, I'm losing power, but getting a spark that actually makes it to the spark plug? Have I understood your coment?

Once set "by ear" rather than to recommended settings, it's a nice drive. My problem is that I'd like to know why it's so far from the factory default settings.

I just did the above test, as well as sucking on the vacuum pipe. Everything seems OK with the distributor. The rotor arm moves about 1/4 of an inch and springs back in one direction, with no movement in the other direction. When I suck on the vacuum pipe, I can see stuff moving inside the distributor. So with static tests, no distributor problems are detected.

No and yes! It has been used regularly (never more than 2 months between drives), but I have neglected routine maintenance as it only does about 1000 mile a year. On the other hand, this isn't a new problem, it's something that I've been ignoring for years.

I'm not sure I understand the first point about the distributor drive tooth, but I've been following the second point for about a year (disregarding the readings, and setting it by trial and error)! I just wondered if there was an easy fix, and if I'm losing a whole herd of horse power.

Thanks, I'll try that too.

Yes, that's on my to-do list. Last time I tried adjusting the timing with a strobe I was on a deadline and didn't get to run it with/without the vacuum advance, and revved to see if the centrifuge weights were doing their thing. I wish I'd taken the time as my rush to get the car ready for a drive meant I drove a car that was awful and I ended up doing a roadside timing adjustment without the strobe to get home.

One idea I had was sticking a screwdriver in the spark plug hole for cylinder 1 to see if I could "feel" TDC from the piston position. Not at all accurate, but hopefully I'd be able to tell if the timing marks are 10 degrees or more out.

Sorry if this is covered elsewhere, I did look, but didn't see anything similar. I'm still investigating this issue, so I already have a partial "to-do" list of things to look at, but I was hoping for some input from others to rule in or out various causes. The problem is that when I set the ignition timing to what it "should" be (13 degrees BTDC), the car runs terribly at all revs. No power. Stalls easily when pulling away, feeble acceleration, needs really high revs to do anything. This has caused me problems in the past, for example when I was at the South of England meet one year, there was a company tuning cars, and I hardly made it out of the field without needing to go back and ask them to reverse everything they'd done! By trial and error, I've found a setting that makes the car drivable, but it's about 20-23 degrees BTDC at idle (Dynamic measurement, I have a timing strobe). I assume this isn't giving me the performance Triumph intended. I still need to test the vacuum advance and centrifugal advance to make sure they're both doing something close to what they're expected to do. Major changes since it left the factory: Running unleaded fuel Twin pipe stainless steel exhaust (original exhaust manifold) K&N air filters Aldon electronic ignition At one point, I wondered if the timing marks on the crack-pully could be wrong, but from looking at the Haynes manual, it looks like there's a woodruff key, so should only fit in one position. Does anyone have any ideas about what else could make the engine only run well so far from the original setting? Is it a problem I need to fix, or just set it to what works and warn all future mechanics? Thanks in advance.

Exactly. The hoses are the least of my worries. You can easily carry some spare and most are easily reachable for a roadside repair with very few tools. Even replacing them all shouldn't be expensive or that difficult. The internals of the fuel tank, petrol pump and carburettor are a totally different story

I didn't want to start a knew topic, but does anyone have any thoughts on how the new fuel will effect bits harder to reach than hoses? I'm thinking about the fuel pump diaphragm, seals inside the fuel tank and carburettor, etc. Thanks to Covid, I'm using my car for a lot less long journeys than usual, but I really don't want to be stranded due to my fuel pump or carburettor failing.