ignition timing
 

1974 260Z - mechanical points

No 1 cylinder at TDC. With the heel of the contact on the high point of the cam in the distrubutor the gap is set to .5mm (checked in manual).

So to get the timimg dead on I now need to rotate the distrubutor until the test bulb goes out yes? - that's the point at which the contact is made/broken. Yes?

How come by the time I've rotated the distributor in either direction to make the bulb go out, it's too far round to get the fastening bolt back in?

Should I twist it clockwise or anticlockwise?

What am I doing wrong?

Re: ignition timing
 

Been forever since I've played with points, and I hate carbeurated cars, but it sounds then like you are never breaking contact until completely seperating the points (duh). This would mean that your clearance between the two points is incorrect, have you checked this?

I always thought that you rotated the distributor untill the light just comes ON. The light shouldn't come on while the points are closed because that's when you're giving the primary winding in the coil it's soak time. The light comes ON just as the points OPEN.

I must have the test lamp wired incorrectly, but the fact remains, when the contact in broken is when the spart is generated yes? So wether the lamp is going from on to off or off to on doesn't really matter, the important thing is when. And that's where the problem is - I can't get the "when" to be anywhere near TDC