Timing issues, what have i done?
 

well i was setting my timing the other day, managed to set the leading just fine, but no matter what i couldnt get the trailing to line up with the notch on the crank... i did however manage to get it somewhat closer than it was before.

now ever since ive done that my car really hesistates on warm starts, i practically have the floor it sometimes to get it to turn over.

i set everything properly as in the haynes manual, @ 500rpm, i have the idle mixture properly adjusted. the only thing i can think that may have hurt the ignition is that i cleaned the contacts in the distributor lid, but the car fires up fine with the choke on and seems to run better than before..

im baffled.. any idea's?

wow 500rpms? i would set your timing more around 800- 850. see if that changes anything. plus i didnt think the trailing timing would make that big of a difference, especially if it's barely off.

I am thinking you can further advance/retard the timing by adjusting the trailing pickup coil or something of the sorts inside the dist. Right now I am too lazy to look it up. I did have the same problem but solved it by using a different dist.

RE 500RPM, yes thats what haynes manual suggests for base, i tried at up over 1k RPM and had the same results

PT, so you think maybe your distributor was toast? i'm not sure if mine feels that way just yet. maybe i should pull one from a junker just incase.

but it did work fine before, so im still a little confused :(

Set you timing at 750 rpm.

Actually, I blew an ignitor on my GSL so I pulled the dist. out of my SE since I was doing some work on it and not driving it. Well, the 12a and 13b have slightly different timings. I could not get the trailing timing on the dist. from the 13b adjusted to the 12a. It was only off a couple degrees but I could not pull it on the money. I finally got the time to find another ignitor and put the original dist. back. I have yet to find someone who had a dist. that was "toast". I have read that the dist. will outlast the life of the car and it seems to be true.

i have that problem but mine isnt ignition realated....i noticed that after the car got warm when i cut it off i could hear a gurlgling sound from under the hood...so when i had a friend with me i got it warm leaned over the engine and told him to cut it off...i found out it was the carb needs a rebuild because when you cut it off after being warm it drips a little bit of gas slowly and the gurgling must have been it seeping past the butterflies

gurgling sounds more like a heater core prob....

why did your carb need a rebuild? because i just rebuilt mine and everything so far is a-ok.

i need more miles to test it all out fully tho.