Your engine distributor drive gear may not be in the position VW intended as shown above, it’s common to be 180° out but in fact can be in any of 12 positions. read below for an explanation of a manual basic setup
Timing with a strobe light
Turn the engine so you can see the timing marks on the pulley where the aux belt is, there should be a U shape for TDC on one edge of pulley and a V shape about 7mm to the right on the other edge of the pulley, this is the 5 degrees before top dead centre mark (BTDC) mark both with tippex
Then connect your strobe light to plug lead no1 or clamp it on if it’s the clamp on type, No1 cylinder is front of van right as you look from the rear.
connect the 12v power to strobe and ground to body, easiest place for 12V is the alternator bolt if it is a late van, if early van may need to get a connection to the stud in the black box.
get the leads away from the belt and pulley
start the engine
allow the choke to come off
remove the vac pipe from dizzy, (revs will drop a little) and point the timing gun at the pulley, you should see the marks, the V should align with centre of engine, that’s the edge of the casting above.
if you have a rev counter you should set the idle stop to 900rpm after removing the vac pipe but if not don’t worry
if it’s out then you need to turn off engine, loosen pinch bolt on dizzy, restart engine and repeat, rotate dizzy until the V mark aligns with centre of engine, use rubber gloves, turn off engine and tighten without moving dizzy.
restart and check
refit vac pipe
Some strobe guns have an adjustable advance, if it has one then make sure it’s set to zero or read up how to use it.
manual basic setup
After a rebuild or if you have taken all the leads off and forgotten how they fit then you need to go back to basics.
The reason is the drive gear has 12 teeth so can mesh with the crank gear in 12 positions so after a rebuild it may not be in the position in the photo above but can still be timed correctly.
it’s supposed to be in about here but in reality it could be anywhere and it will still work as long as the dizzy matches.
To set the timing manually you need to find TDC ( or better still the timing mark next to it) on compression stroke for No1 cylinder.
No1 is towards the front of vehicle on the right hand side as you stand at the rear looking at the engine.
TDC or timing mark is the U or V shape groove in the crank pulley, find them and mark them with tippex
Next remove the plug from No1 clinder and place your finger in the hole, turn the engine over clockwise with a spanner on the crank pulley bolt, taking all plugs out makes this much easier as the engine turns easier.
As you get to compression stroke on No1 you will feel the pressure, if you are not sure go around again. Two turns of crank for each compression stroke on No1.
Stop when the marks are uppermost AND you feel pressure, now align the V mark exactly with the centre of engine case.
Next follow No 1 plug lead to the cap and mark the distributor body below the cap with a pen or tippex at the exact point the No 1 lead is, you need to fit the cap of course.
Remove the cap and the rotor arm should be pointing to this mark on the distributor body.
If it’s not then slacken the pinch bolt and rotate the distributor body until it does align.
There may be some cases where the vac can hits something, or the leads were never fitted correctly in this case you will have to move the plug leads around on the cap, all the leads need to move so they stay in the same order but are moved in relation to the cap alignment key. You will then need to refit the cap and make a new mark where No1 lead is in relation to the body.
if the gear is in correctly, and the plug leads are on correcty, it should look like the first photo on this page.
Remember when you turn the distributor body you are not turning the rotor arm, that’s fixed to the engine, you are turning the body in relation to the arm. The body hold the hall sensor which triggers the spark so by turning the body in relation to the rotor arm you are altering the timing.
When the mark for No 1 plug lead is aligned with rotor arm stop and tighten pinch bolt.
Replace cap and check the order of the spark plug leads is 1432 clockwise.
In this position it should start and then you can set timing with a strobe as described above.
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