Hello to all the helpful people. The complete distributor has been replaced on my 500L fitted with a 650cc engine. At the time I failed to note the position of the spline when replacing back into the engine and am now having difficulty setting the timing.. Any advice gratefully received.
Other here can give more specific details for the 500/650 engine , but in general terms and on nearly any engine:-
Remove spark plugs, turn engine in normal direction of rotation (a quick flick of the starter may show you), as turning the engine with finger over the plug hole you believe is no.1 (usually the one nearest to the fan belt/crank pulley when the piston is coming up on the firing stroke you should feel air pressure under your finger (if not turn engine around again another full revolution until you feel pressure building, if you then look down the plug hole you should see piston is almost at the top of it's stroke, carefully with a screwdriver feel when it comes to the very top and then starts to go down again, by rocking the crankshaft pulley you should be able to feel near enough the exact top dead centre position TDC, if you then turn the pulley back approx.10-13mm and mark or if lucky find the marks already there to correspond with the point that the spark should fire the spark plug on no.1 cylinder, if done correctly it should also line up the rotor arm in the distributor with the same no1. cylinder of the engine, if not refit distributor to correct position.
You didn't mention if electronic or contact breaker points fitted, either way this method will get you within a few degrees of the correct position and should be enough to get car running and with a little care set the optimum position for good running as with modern lower octane fuels the exact point may not be where the timing marks correspond.
If you have contact points then using either a multimeter or even a bulb/test lamp you should be able by connecting the test wire to the points wire and the bulb to earth find the exact point where the contact points start to open hopefully if set correctly, roughly 5-10 degrees before TDC.
Over 55 years ago the lecturer at motor vehicle college got us to time the valve and ignition timing with no marks at all on an engine and then get it to run. The Valve timing on a four cylinder engine usually done by having the valves rocking (one going up and one going down) on no4 cylinder, meaning no1. was on the firing stroke at TDC.
I have even used roughly this method on three cylinder Wartburg two stroke engine that have three sets of contact points, each having to be gaped and timed individually for the three separate ignition coils. The only time that didn't work was when the pressed together crankshaft had moved meaning the three pistons were not in correct position, thereby involving an engine rebuild with reconditioned crankshaft assembly, not uncommon!
