I'm a new member of the "why won't my Dent fire?" club. I have a '76 F100 4WD 360 Manual.

Between my learning-by-making-mistakes I am thinking I may have jumped timing. I have a book with instructions for replacing timing chain and gears but I also expect I'll need to re-time it because the cam was rotated with the distributor out.

In my Chiltons (book 26662) on page 3-3 there are instructions for how to do this. I have piston 1 at TDC but I don't understand what this instruction means:

"Align the timing marks to the correct ignition timing shown on the underhood decal."

I have no decal but I know 6-10 BTDC is accepted. But, what the H are the "timing marks"? And how to I "align them"?

I am pretty sure I don't get the next step either:

"Install the distributor with the rotor in the number 1 firing position at any armature pole aligned with a stator pole"

Can anyone restate these steps in language that a fifth grader could follow? Maybe with diagrams?
There is no rush as I'm also suddenly not getting spark and I'm tracing down the cause of that. Ugh.

 

Make 100% sure you have cylinder #1 on TDC of the compression stroke.

Install the distributor so the rotor ends up pointing at about 1 or 2 o'clock as you are looking DOWN on it.

Rotate the body so it ends up with #1 terminal lined up with the rotor.

Install cap, fire engine and time. Rotating the body CLOCKWISE advances the timing, CCW retards by the way.

Ignore that crap about armatures, points and garbage.

Josh

 

Try cleaning the harmonic balancer with some fine sand paper or steel wool so you can see the timing marks.
Make sure #1 piston is at TDC and the distributor rotor button is pointing to the #1 plug wire location(approx. @ the 1 o'clock position)and drop the distributor in. This can sometimes take several attemps to get it to drop in the correct place. You may need to look down into the block and position the distributor/oil pump drive shaft to get the distributor drop correctly.
Then after getting the engine running, you can set the timing.

 

Hey Drew,
Pull the #1 spark plug. Put your finger over the hole and bump the engine over until you feel compression build up (wants to blow your finger off the hole) Continue to rotate the engine until the timing mark lines up with the TDC mark on the harmonic balancer. The timing pointer is attached to the timing chain cover, the balancer will have degree marks on it along with the TDC (top dead center) mark. Clean the balancer off so you can see the marks. Take some paint, nail polish, crayon or something and mark the 6 deg. BTDC (before top dead center) line. This is what you will set your timing at.
On the distributor cap some have a "1" mark by one of the towers, this (obviously) is the number 1 cylinder. If yours isn't marked, see which tower the #1 plug wire goes to. Put the distributor cap on the distributor and put a mark on the distributor body where the # 1 position is. Take the cap back off and position the rotor so it is pointing to the mark you just made.
Now position the distributor so the vacuum advance points forward, make sure the rotor is still pointed to the mark and install. When you lower the dist you'll see the rotor turn a little bit, you might have to pull the dist back out and turn the rotor 1 tooth opposite the direction it turned.
Once your satisfied with the position of the rotor and distributor (the rotor should still be pointing to the mark and the vacuum adv. pointing forward) push the distributor down as far as it will go. If it doesn't seat its because the oil pump driveshaft hasn't seated yet. If this happens you'll need to spin the engine over while pushing down on the distributor untill the oil pump drive shaft seats and the distributor goes all the way down.
Install the distributor hold down clamp and distributor cap.
Try to start the engine. If it backfires turn the distributor counter-clockwise and try again.
If it just spins or barely tries to start turn the distributor clockwise to advance the spark.
Once you get it running disconnect the line to the vacuum advance and put a timing light on it. Turn the distributor either way until the timing mark lines up with the 6BTDC mark that you highlighted earlier.
If you can't turn the distributor far enough because the vacuum advance hits something you'll need to pull the dist. and turn it 1 tooth opposite the direction you were turning the distributor.
I make it sound more complicated than it really is. Once you do it one time, you'll realize its actually pretty simple.
Good luck.
Mike

 

Helpful responses!

I'll be on it tomorrow afternoon.

I have a brand new balancer on there- that's how the crank got rotated. I'd pulled the carb to replace the oil pump shaft last week so there was no carry-over.

 

Dogmantra, can you post a bigger picture of your truck? I like that orange, do you know the name of the color?