Pointless ignition timing

[johnsonm50]

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Thanks on the shock thought
I have a Sears timing light with inductive pickup that requires an external 12v battery to run it. It is for Autos but works for any engine as long as you can get at the plug wire and have 12v

Me too, havent tried it standing in water tho, important heads up.

[ZUL8TR]

Timing Light

Me too, havent tried it standing in water tho, important heads up.

I will stand on rubber pads

[Blackhawkguy]

how to set (verify) timing marks

You can verify your TDC mark by using a piston stop, almost all the service manuals for OMC and Mercury tell you how to do this, install a piston stop in the top cylinder, rotate the flywheel one direction and place a mark at the pointer where it stops, rotate it the other direction and do the same. Now take a steel rule and bend it around the flywheel and measure the distance between the two marks, the center of the distance would be the true TDC, your OEM mark should be there, if not make it where your measurement is and then adjust your timing marks acourdingly. You can use a dial indicator to veryfiy the mark also but you have a little play to work with that way, the piston stop method is best.

Or as Team B&H stated, run it, advance until you slow down, back it up to where it was best and lock it down.

Kerry

P.S. You can use whatever you want for a reference point, should be one on the rewind, but you can use the crancase to block seem, whatever you want, you can also get a degree wheel and install it on the crankshaft and make your own marks once you establish TDC