Timing mark

[mjr45]

Went out yesterday to check the timing (finally got a timing light), marked the timing plate on the engine to be able to see it and found no, zero, nada, nothing timing mark on the crank pulley to mark. I know the mark is small based on the one on my spare engine and after turning the pulley multiple times, feeling the edge and running my fingernail around the entire edge, still no mark, dent or anything. Whats next and don't tell to pull the radiotor and all the belts!

[Arne]

Find TDC manually (watching valves and piston with the spark plug out) and then use a triangular file to make a mark in the correct location.

[Gary in NJ]

Nissan used two different type markings on the L24's. One is a fixed pointer mounted on the timing cover with O +5 +10 & -5 -10 marked on the harmonic balancer. The other is a O mark on the HB with a scale mounted on the timing cover.

Which do you have?

[FastWoman]

This method works. I've used it on an ancient marine engine with no timing scale or notch (both rusted away):

http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/tdc/index.html

I bet you have a notch, but you can't see or feel it because it's filled with dirt/crud/rust. Put the engine to TDC, and hit the crank pulley with sandpaper or a wire brush, and I bet you'll find a notch. Then hit it with a dot of white paint. (Liquid paper also works.)

Edited January 12, 2011 by FastWoman

[TomoHawk]

Mine was rusted over, like Sarah says.

I removed all the plugs to find the TDC, and the mark was there at about the zero on the indicator plate. If you can, de-rust the indicator plate and get a little paint into the timing indicator notch on the pulley.

[Zed Head]

Which car, your profile shows four - 1973 240z, 1975 280z, 1976 280z, 1978 280z?

Four cars and a spare engine. You must know what you're looking for.

Might be that Arne's suggestion is where you'll end up. You can also take your distributor cap off rather than the valve cover) to see when the rotor is pointing at the number one plug wire (should be almost straight ahead ~11:30, I believe) to tell if you're on the compression stroke. Assuming that the car runs now and the distributor is installed correctly.

[mjr45]

Zed, I've had 4 Z's currently own a 75, in the past I didn't do much in the way of wrenching on any of them other than basic tune ups. This one I decided to work on myself since I'm retired and have time. I'll try the suggested fixes and see what I can come up with. Thanx for all the input.

[Zed Head]

Too bad, I thought you were the lucky owner of four cars, plus parts.

Like FastWoman suggests, I have used Liquid Paper/Whiteout to mark the notch. It seems to hold up well.

I think I found mine by putting the car in high gear and slowly rolling it along the garage floor by hand so that I could make sure that I saw all of the damper pulley. You can't tell what you're missing when you try to bump it around with the starter.

[mjr45]

Thanx Zed, I'm going to work on the car today and see if I can finally find the timing mark. In the past I just used some chaulk, but with this one a little paint will probably go on. The car runs well, but just not as well as I would like, so I'm checking all the easy stuff first, vacuum, compression, timing etc., I ve already done the basic tune, oil, plugs, spark wires, dizzy cap and rotor.