HELP!! M38A1 Timing

Bugler · Post by **Bugler** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:50 pm

its 180 degrees off. it should be pointing to #1 for the rotor and its pointing at #4. the engine is TDC. So I guess I have to take out the pump gear and index it I guess, right?

Post by **wesk** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:38 pm

Did you run the engine to determine it is 180 out?

Bugler · Post by **Bugler** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 8:28 am

all it does is shoot fire out of the carb and I changed out the electronic distrib to a NOS distrib with points and sat at 0.20. Compression at #1 the fat part of rotor points at #4 instead of #1 on distrib. I've checked this over and over again and the conclusion is that it is out 180.

Post by **wesk** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 8:45 am

The only problem with your conclusion is the distributor only fits one way so a 180 degree error is only possible if you have the wrong cylinder at top on compression IE have #1 at top on it's exhaust stroke.

Let's look at what we covered earlier.

1 - #1 TDC on compression. This done using your thumb over the spark plug hole. Don't rely on the two gear marks.They line up twice each cycle. Once on Compression and Once on Exhaust! If you err and set everything with #1 TDC exhaust then yes you will be 180 deg's off.

2 - The oil pump indexing then matches the illustration.

3 - Then the distributor rotor points to the correct lower

4 - The wires are arranged correctly per the illustration.

You must meet these four requirements in the order posted for the timing to end up correct.

Bugler · Post by **Bugler** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:21 pm

She is up and running

. Thanks alot Wes, the guys at the DAV have something to ride in at the parade the end of this month. Thank you.

RICKG · Post by **RICKG** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:52 pm

Good News!! It's helpful to post your remedy for us. Could help out
others in the future. You re-indexed the oil pump 180 deg??

Bugler · Post by **Bugler** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 5:26 pm

Distrib was bad so got new one, installed it and off it went.

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 2:30 pm

Just wanted to thank Wes and the rest of the folks for again
providing quality information.

My son in laws CJ5 was out of time. He couldn't find the timing
marks and the distributor would not move far enough to set the
advance properly.

I found this post with timing info on the A1, found the three versions
of the timing marks, which we used to find the stamped info
on the cover.

Further reading explained the need for clocking the oil pump
correctly. He loosened the pump, turned the gear one tooth,
bolted everything up tight and now the distributor has equal
adjustment either side of TDC.

After I left he set the advance, connected everything back up
connected a timing light, reset the advance and the jeep is
running great !

Thanks again.
Brian