Distributor out, lost my marks

Cusser said:

On my daughter's '98 Pathfinder with same V6 engine, the distributor hold-down bolt is NOT in the center of the distributor groove when timed correctly, it's near the end.

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Same with my '01 Frontier: IIRC the slot on the distrib is all the way towards the windshield, so the bolt itself is located in a position where the distributor could only be moved counterclockwise towards the front of the truck.

kevinjohnson3216 said:

I would think if you move it a tooth then you could still be in spec but bring the adjustment closer to center

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Yeah I thought about it but I wasnt exactly sure if I should shift the teeth one to the left or to the right. I left it all at factory. Im going to attempt to manually time the engine at some point, hopefully it doesnt bite me in the ***. (but i could just do what Cusser did and grind out the notch a bit more if necessary)

skypliot said:

I replaced the distributor and can't get it started. the marks I"m using for TDC are the five notches on lower pully, are those right? If not, HELP???? secondly, is it possible to set it TDC on the exhaust stroke and not the compression stroke using that. I'm frustrated.

Thanks

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Five notches on lower pulley are correct....you need the left most one for TDC.

First I would double check to make sure everything is connected (especially plug wire orientation). If the timing were that far off, I would wonder if the valves could hit the pistons even just during starting attempts, so if you arent hearing any bad noises Id start with checking connections first.

And yes, my understanding is that it is possible to end up at TDC on exhaust stroke. I actually "rented" a compression tester so I could know for sure when I was on compression stroke of cylinder 1. Since my distributor wasnt removed, I could also tell by the fact that the rotor was pointing at the #1 plug wire. Since your distrib was removed, the compression tester might be the best way.

skypliot said:

I"m not hearing bad noises, but it seems to me that the engine timing should prevent valves hitting pistons. That hasn't been changed. Ignition timing, while it can cause problems, isn't going to effect engine timing.

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Absolutely correct, sorry about that...I was still in the timing belt change mindset (since I FINALLY finished mine last weekend)

kevinjohnson3216 said:

Is it really possible? I haven't checked mine, put everything back together to their timing marks but havetnt started it up

If I check compression for #1 then what is the adjacent cylinder that should be on exhaust? 6? Can't get the tester back there to the other head.

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Thinking logically, yes its possible. The piston will get to TDC on 2 of the 4 strokes in a cycle: compression and exhaust.

When at TDC of compression, the spark plug needs to fire, which is why the rotor will line up with the #1 cylinder plug wire.

When at TDC of exhaust, the spark plug WONT fire, so the rotor will not be pointing at plug wire #1

If you havent removed your distributor completely, you can tell you're at TDC of compression stroke on cylinder #1 by lining the timing pointer up with the left most notch on the crank pulley and checking to see the rotor is pointed at where the #1 plug wire would be (IIRC its in the 4 or 5PM position if the distrib cap were a clock). I initially didnt even think about the rotor position so I had used the compression tester instead. Rotor position is much easier provided the distrib hasnt been removed/reinstalled.

Im not sure which cylinder would be on exhaust at the point of #1 being at TDC of compression.

When I had mine apart, I moved the Cam enough to get it to spin, on several occasions. BUT the force to move it is so great, all it did was move 90 degrees in whichever direction I was trying to turn it. So it was just a matter of going 90 degrees in the opposite direction to get it back to starting point. I could see how one could lose track of it, though...It scared the hell out of me the first time it happened.

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