Is my distributor drive gear off?

[LordHuron95]

Hello all.

I have a 1980 AC cali vanagon. Engine freshly rebuilt and trying to get it started. In my process of adjusting the valves and getting each cylinder to its respective TDC, an article mentioned there being a small file mark on the rim of the distributor that I believe I have circled in my image. The article continues by saying the rotor should be facing that mark for true TDC, or TDC for cylinder 1.

With a camera in the spark plug hole for cylinder 1, I see the piston is at the top of its stroke. Also on the harmonic balancer, the TDC mark on the fan lines up with 0° TDC. Yet the rotor is roughly 90° behind, or on cylinder 2, which is followed by cylinder 1.

So my question is, is my timing gear off a couple teeth? Do I need to move it clockwise 2 teeth or so so that my rotor lines up with that mark?

_________________
Never swing a mean loop. Never do dirt to man nor animal.

-1980 Vanagon Westy

[borninabus]

the most common thing happening here is that the dist drive gear is not installed correctly. the timing gear is inside the engine attached to the end of the cam. to find out if your engine is truly @ #1, TDC is to remove the 1-2 valve cover and rock the crankshaft back and forth 10 or so degrees. if it is on #1 TDC, the valves for #1 cylinder will not move. the exhaust valve for #2 will move. if the valves on #1 move, then you are on #3 TDC. if this all checks out, you can simply move the #1 plug wire to where the rotor is pointing and the other wires accordingly.
_________________
88 Van WBX, A/T - 13 JSW TDI 6M/T - 2012 Touareg TDI Sport

[LordHuron95]

[Wellington]

The distributor drive, under your distributor engages a gear on the crankshaft.
If your positions are indeed correct, you can remove your distributor and withdraw the drive gear, rotate it and reinstall. There is a specific tool for this, but a dowel of correct diameter can be a snug fit in the drive after the spring is removed to do the job. A slight rotation at the time of withdrawal helps.

[MarkWard]

I would caution pulling the drive gear and resetting. There are shims under it and they could fall in the case and not be retrieved.

You can turn the distributor housing some to improve alignment. If there isn’t the room, you can move the plug wires in the cap one position. The case mark is only a reference for when everything is correct. It is not actually necessary to run the engine.

And to emphasize, cylinder 1 comes to TDC twice in a 4 stroke engine. First time , valves are closed on the compression stroke. The next time the intake and exhaust are slightly open in the overlap stroke. Crank pulley mark is the same, but to set the timing you need to verify you are on the compression stroke. As mentioned above, the valve position is the tell.

[borninabus]

[Wildthings]

If you have things off by 90° of distributor rotation the engine would like fart and bang as you crank it. If the timing is off 180° on the cap the engine will most likely crank without attempting start and may not backfire at all, though after enough cranking it could backfire bad enough the blow your muffler apart.

Not sure where you ended up on setting your valves in your other thread.

[MarkWard]

I would set the valves following the order, but on an engine that hasn’t run or recently run, set the valve clearance to zero. No preload. Use your fingers to turn in the adjuster not a screwdriver. This way you feel when the lash is zero. A screwdriver makes it more difficult to feel. The lifters even empty should still be expanded fully. No need to remove and prime. This will ensure good compression on start up.

Once you’ve got the valves set and the distributor close, go ahead and start it. Set the timing for idle. It may sound noisy while the lifters pump up. Once you’ve got the engine starting and running, you can go back and set the valves again with preload.