One way to be sure the mark is actually TDC is to use a dowel or screwdriver or some other solid object in the sparkplug hole. Then hand crank the engine one direction until it is almost at TDC and hits the object. Make a mark on the balancer where it lines up with TDC pointer on the engine. Then without moving the object hand crank the engine the opposite direction almost 360 degrees until it hits the object again. Make another mark on the balancer where it lines up the same TDC pointer you used before. The two marks you made should be equally on either side of the TDC mark on the balancer. Know what I mean? :) Ken Ames Quoting Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>: > On Wed, 1 Dec 2004, Dan Curtis wrote: > > > >You never answered the basic question: > > >When you set the #1 piston to TDC power stroke, do the marks > > >line up, or not? If not, how far are they off? > > > > The timing marks should be pretty close to lined up perfectly at TDC > unless > > your timing chain gears > > are not aligned properly. > > (I was thinking mainly that locating TDC#1power with fingers, > dowels, valve-cover-off, etc, isn't extremely precise; it mainly > gets you in the ballpark, after which you usually rotate the > crank 'til the marks line up.) > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/