Date:         Mon, 16 Dec 1996 23:05:05 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Diebolt <jdiebolt@up.net>
Subject:      Re: Timing the watercooled?

>Time it statically, engine off, as described in the Muir, How To Keep Your
>Volkswagen Alive (pg. 108-109), and set it 5 degrees after TDC, 7.5mm to the
>left of TDC mark(Bentley pg. 13.33)? 

If you have a dual hose vacuum advance you cannot properly static time it
unless you compensate for the retard. You have to either apply a vacuum to
the retard side or find out the amount of degrees of retard that are
produced when in the running state. The reason for this is total advance. A
single hose advance, numbers are examples only, may give you 30 degrees
total advance. A dual hose advance will have 15 degrees retard and 15
degrees advance. The total advance is still 30 degrees. If you set the
timing without the retard compensated for or no vacuum your total timing
will be reduced to 15 degrees advance. It'll be a real dog. When I set the
timing dynamically I always remove the retard hose and check that the
retard is working. The few times I've set the timing statically I applied
vacuum to the retard hose and timed it. HTH
Greetings from Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Jeff & Jean-Marie Diebolt
jdiebolt@up.net