University Motors Limited, Ada, Michigan

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Goldstar Products

6490 East Fulton
Ada, Michigan 49301
616.682.0800

Timing Issue

I have a beautiful blue 1980 MGB that is in near perfect condition. I am having a problem with timing that I hope you can help me with.

On a trip last week the timing went completely off... we weren't doing anything unusual. Just shut the car off. When we tried to restart the car the next day, it would start, but just barely and ran extremely rough. I had the timing light along and checked it. It was way off. The pulley mark was way clockwise of the timing marks. I adjusted the distributor back to 10 degrees BTDC at 1500 and it ran just fine. We drove it about 70 miles and as I was driving I noticed the idle speed was increasing at each idle. When I got home, I checked timing again, and this time the timing mark was way counterclockwise of the timing mark.

Do I have a distributor problem or a timing chain problem or something else. Can you help point me in the right direction? Original engine with no modifications. Distributor clamp was tight.

It's easier to tell you what ISN'T the problem than to diagnose it sitting here in front of this computer screen. It is not the timing chain; it is not the distributor drive gear. If the distributor is not moving then the problem must be in the distributor itself. The only two things that come to mind are: the plate holding the pick-up is moving; or the advance mechanism is frozen. There is no substitute to removing the distributor, placing it in the jaws of your bench vise (carefully!) and testing the advance mechanism and fiddling with the pickup device (whatever that may be).