Ive been trying to time my 88 NA.
I do everything the haynes manual tells me and Pft... this sucks.

I get the timing very close to the leading mark on the pulley. but I run out of slide adjustment. I cant get it on the mark. its about 1/16 in off.

Also the manual says im supposed to time the T1 coil wire as well. However when I do this, the Trailing coil aligns to the leading pulley mark as well.

This is really confusing the crap out of me.
I already tried moving a tooth to try and adjust my alignment but that makes it really off.

 

The slider is so it can be adjusted between each tooth, you may be going the wrong way when you restab the timing gear or jumping more than one tooth. Do some searching if you have more trouble, undoubtedly this topic has been covered a lot.

 

Ive tried going one tooth both ways. I get nowhere.

 

have the pulleys ever been changed on your engine? was the engine ever rebuilt?

 

accel warm startup routine will fix timing together between 5 and 8 BTDC for a period after start up
do not s measure the timing during this period

be sure you use the set couple bridge
have the engine warmed and idled through the start routine
and bring idle speed below 1000 rpm and calibrate the TPS to be sure the ecu isnt playing timing games

also,,. good inductive timing lights may be uber sensative and trigger on the leading ignition even though you have the pickup on the trailing lead
in some instances you have to disable the leading spark to be sure

 

It's difficult to install the crank angle sensor with the power steering & A/C stuff bolted up. If you back the power steering pump off its studs, you will have an easier time installing the crank angle sensor. Then you won't be off a tooth and will have the right adjustment range.

 

I tried this weekend to time it again and I Think three spark plugs are fouled. This might be causeing most of my problems currently. :/ not happy. But Ill put new plugs in as soon as I can.... annnd well see what happens. I had no Idea theses things can run fairly normal on one leading spark plug!

 

Line up the yellow mark on the main pulley with the Tit sticking out of the front cover. Then pop the lid off your CAS and rotate it until it looks like this:


If the car doesn't start and the main pulley is the correct one, then the problem is not due to the timing being set wrong.

 

Also, if you do this and put a light on it, it should be very close to correct.

Make sure you get the plugs wires on right too. L1 to lower front spark plugs, L2 to lower rear, T1 to top front, T2 to top rear. It seems like you've done this, but all sorts of people come though here. Good luck!