Back Firing Cure......Learned something!!!

joebuck · Post by **joebuck** » Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:14 pm

My M-38 had started to run a little rough... I had monkeyed around with the idle and lean screw some but never to correct the popping sound. Finally fixed my "flat" spot before acceleration with Wesk help but the girl just kept making this popping noise ( backfiring) as it took off.or slowed down....................................well long story short.... my friend at hunting camp drove up and said raise your hood.......he grabbed the distributor and gave it a twist!!!!!!!!!......just a small one.......he said he tightened it.....he said something about "timing and these old motors"......

The ole girl purss like a 40lb house cat......WOW it runs good.....

What happened????

Post by **wesk** » Thu Oct 24, 2013 4:53 pm

If the distributor hold down screw is tightened correctly he would not have been able to move the distributor and disturb the timing setting. If he got lucky and got it right and not too far advanced great but I wonder why he didn't advise you to tighten the hold down bolt????

We have timing explained in detail on the downloads page. Also plenty of timing reference photos in my album. Doing what your friend did and timing the engine by ear is ok sometimes but usually they advance it too far. The original setting of 5 degrees before TDC is a factory compromise. All settings are compromises between good performance and longevity. If he advanced it too far she will purr like a kitten but she will turn over very slow when trying to do a quick restart while the engine is hot. Do yourself a big favor and get the book out or download the info and time it right.

joebuck · Post by **joebuck** » Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:00 pm

I am not sure my friend finished the 9th grade. He is a veteran tractor driver/farm jimmyrigger extraordinaire . He currently is our caretaker at our deer camp. I guess he got tired of hearing me PoputtPop around and decided to help me!!!!!!

i will down load the timing manuals....however as far as my background....i import kitchen cabinets for a living.......but i aint scared to dive into something....my jeep is 35 miles from nearest mechanic. so i do the best i can with what i can learn on here.

thanks again for the help

joebuck · Post by **joebuck** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:01 pm

I Spoke too soon Wes. She started running rich , sputtering, wiggled here and there and now she won't crank. I have a mechanic coming to my deer camp Tuesday to look into it. I'll download info so he will have it. Hope I didn't screw up something bigger.