Guessing is not setting. "Setting" implies a certain level of accuracy. Without a light, you are just guessing. The answer is no, you cannot set the timing wo a light.
Keith

Timing light it is! A person a work inherited one from his dad which I can borrow. Old school but should still work fine I assume.

At least I know now how to adjust the distributor, how it affects the engine and that I won't get zapped! I used gloves and grabbed at the base (near the screws). Cool to see how it adjusts the engine idle and smoothness...

I purchased that xenon timing light from Harbor Freight. It works quite well and they go on sale from time to time.

yes and it is bright enough to work in daylight, although probably not in direct sunlight.

Finally found a used one for sale in Ottawa.

http://www.usedottawa.com/classified-ad ... t_18682564

Hopefully it's still for sale...

Argh! The person in Ottawa selling the timing light doesn't want to sell it. People are weird online sometimes...

I borrowed an old school timing light. 2 wires but no clips on the end of them and no button. Can this be used? Not sure what to do to hook it up though. Help! Here's a few pics. Is this a timing light???





If so what the heck do I do with it?

Not sure what that thing is. Do you have a Harbor Freight Tools nearby? They are cheap.

I believe if you look you will see that one of the wires has an end that will fit on a sparkplug, and the other end will fit into the spark plug wire. The light is connected in series with the spark plug -- (plug wire disconnected at the plug and the light is connected to the plug wire on one end and the other end is connected to the sparkplug. The light is fired with the plug using the spark energy.

Interesting, never seen one of those!

20 bucks at HF gets you a xenon one. Works well.

http://www.harborfreight.com/xenon-timi ... -3343.html

I don't think that they have HF in Canada. There's still one in stock at Canadian Tire with the link I posted previously. It's CAD$50.

Just bought the one from shop.ca for $29.99 (free shipping).

http://www.shop.ca/c/tooluxe-xenon-auto ... 5-24293139

If anyone in Ottawa wants to borrow the timing light in the future let me know. Might as well maximize the use of this thing.

Put me on the list, you can show me how to use it

I put some paint on the timing mark on the crankshaft. I have a few questions before I do this to save me some pain.
- on my '81 what's the best position to see the timing mark? Looks like it's really low down, blocked by the radiator, hoses and probably really hard to see. Any tips?
- for the + and - connectors on the timing light, considering the battery is in the trunk, where's the best spot to hook these up? I guess on the alternator? I'm just a little worried about getting the cables caught in something in a low down position like this.

Shine the light in at an angle from about the middle of the exhaust side. You can get 12VDC off the coil, and a ground almost anywhere. You can just see the marks and they will be properly visible if you put the paint on the notch (and on the pointers helps too). Just be really careful or you can get burned on the exhaust. But it works well!

Not sure if it was mentioned but it's always good practice to run the timing light off a separate battery. Certain ignitions/alternators can reek havoc with the timing light.