I am having a strange problem when trying to time my car. It is a very early 79. when I checked the timing the first time (leading) it was a few degrees retarded from the first mark. when I tried to advance it I found that the distributer was all the way advanced as far as it could go. Since I needed a few more degrees I pulled the distributer and advanced it one tooth. This worked well and I was able to line up the marks prefectly. The enging really smoothed out and ran great at idle. Next I hooked up the timing light to the trailing and checked it. It was actually in front of the leading by probably a good 10 degrees. I tried to retard it using the adjustment on the vac advance but that was good for only about 2 or 3 degrees, basically no help. The car runs ok but I was getting a slight ping under hard acceleration so I just took it easy, got it home and havent been able to figure out what to do next. Any ideas? This is my first rotory but I have done a fair amount of wrenching on other cars over the years. Again any help greatly appreciated.

 

I'll bring my fsm over this weekend and we'll take a look at it. Just get my number from Tom or shoot me a P.M. I have been excited to see that SA for a while now by the way!
-Robert

 

Hey thanks Robert, I have to work until 5:00 Sat and Sun but any time after that would be great. I got your number from Tom and I will give you a call later this week to work out a time....Thanks Again....Mike

 

ok, I figured out the problem and am feeling kind of foolish. Apparently it does matter which coil you use for leading/trailing. After 2 days of pulling my hair out I switched the coil wires and everything was fine. Hopefully somebody out there will learn from my stupidity....Mike