As the odometer read 50,001 miles my thoughts last week turned to changing the timing belt.

Getting the belt was easy and after speaking to the FIAT mechanic at my local dealer I decided not to bother getting a new bearing. So for a total outlay of £11 I was looking forward to a painless job. Especially as the Carb FIRE 999CC is a 'safe' engine.

When I lined up the cam shaft sprocket with the timing mark, the crankshaft sprocket did not line up with its timing mark. It was about 1 tooth out.

So I decided that it would be a good idea to 'reset' the crankshaft and turned it so that it lined up.

The engine started and sounded OK, so I put the car back together and went for a spin.

So here's the problem:

The car pinks more than it used to - can I get away with adjusting the distributor or is it a symptom of a bigger problem?

Regards,

Martin



Fix It Again Tony!

I'm assuming you haven't reset the ignition timing:
you will need to because the distributor is driven off the other end of the camshaft - you've advanced the timing 1 tooth, which ISTR is about 15 degrees, and the ignition timing by the same ammount.

As you probably know the timing is something like
2 degrees plus or minus 2 with the vacuum advance disconnected and plugged.
or about 10 degrees more than that with vacuum advance connected (and working)

Those figures are off the top of my head, and maybe subject to revision...
But I'm fairly confident about the figure with vacuum disconnected

Revision 27/05/04
According to Haynes the vacuum advance is in the range 11 to 15 degrees.
If it can vary that much you'd want to do your timing with it disconnected - because the base figure (of 2 plus or minus 2) is what you get when you put your foot to the floor, and that's when it will "pink"/"ping"

I see what you mean, doh - I forgot the distributor is driven off the cam shaft!

That explains the pinking.

Right, I'm off to adjust it.

Regards,

Martin

Fix It Again Tony!

I know the ignition advance is 15° +/-2° with the vacuum connected for the 999cc injected (2°+/-2° if disconnected)...maybe on the carbed version this value's different[?]


Do I turn fast enough!?