Date:         Mon, 3 Nov 2014 20:44:49 -0500
Reply-To:     Michael McSwain <michaelmcswain@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Michael McSwain <michaelmcswain@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      84 Vanagon timing advance troubles
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hello all, first time posting.

I've got an 84 Westy that is actually running really well at the moment,
but I've got something that's confusing me.  I've tried and tried to set my
timing per tencentlife's recommendation of setting to full advance, but for
the life of me I can't get it to behave like everyone is suggesting that it
should.

As far as I understand it, the V-Notch (5 ATDC) should line up with the
block center line at idle.
A mark made 2" to the right of the V-Notch should line up with the center
line at full full advance or around 3.5k RPMs.

Couldn't get that to work as hard as I tried.

So i abandoned the full advance method and just set it at idle and it seems
to run pretty well.

What's got me confused is, I went over to my buddy's (ryan perry on the
list) who also has an 84 and we checked his timing. On his van it was
idling at the V-Notch. When we ran it up to around 3.5k RPMs it lined up
exactly with the 2" BTDC mark that tencent suggests.

So we go back over to my van and check my timing.  It was idling at the
same place, the V-Notch. But when I ran it up to 3.5k RPMs, full advance
stopped about 4 inches to the right of the V-Notch.

I'm no mechanic so I hope that all makes sense, but does that sound normal?
Shouldn't two 1.9's act the same in this regard?  All of these test were
preformed with the Idle Stabilizer bypassed.  My RPMs at idle are right on
the dot at 850.  Should I leave well enough alone or could it be running
better?

Thanks for any advice.

Michael.