How to dynmo time your festiva

[milehighbear]

Ok, found a thread that said the timing for festiva is 10 degrees btdc(mine is 93). My question is there anything that you have to do to the distributor to get the right reading. I put my timing light on and looked at the mark on the pulley. There are actually two marks on my pulley. They are an inch before the timing indicator marks on the plastic belt cover. PU241 thinks there is some wire you ground or something like that. Does anyone know the answer to this so we may spread it around. I did it the conventional way with marks on the pulleys, but I want to know the true marking and setting.

[link5186]

In order to disable the automatic timing advance you have to ground the STI connector. On the Festiva it's located in a bundle of wires next to the brake booster.

The STI connector is the single black female spade terminal in between my fingers in this shot. Just run a jumper wire from it to battery ground. The only other single pin connector is white, and it's a Tach signal. I labeled mine to make it easy to remember. I had my best luck setting the timing using a dwell meter. I couldn't get it quite right with my timing light (leading to a bit of spark knock). Missed it by about 2 degrees.

[milehighbear]

Is it a double pin connector with two female connectors, one horizontal and on vertical to each other. And if so, which connector do you ground? Ok, after I put your picture on my computer, I noticed your plug had a yellow wire. The one I was talking about has a green and black wire. So it must be the single pin connector with yellow wire. I found it also. Ok, now the dwell meter, I have an engine analyzer meter that sets dwell and points, and rpm. As far as I know, these meters are used on older cars that have points in the distributor. Am I correct. If so, that wont work on mine but I can still use my timing light and play with it for awhile to see how it goes. Thank you. PU241, is this what you were talking about? I hope you get to feeling better buddy, have good weekend.

[link5186]

Yup, it's that single pin connector. Should've said between my thumb and finger. When you ground it, the rpms usually drop a little bit. The meter I used was a napa dwell-points-tach analyzer. With sti grounded, I hooked the signal lead to the tach signal (white) connector. Set it to dwell, 4cyl and used it to dial in the timing without any issue. It's not exactly the intended use for those meters, but it works like a charm.

[milehighbear]

Cool, thats basically the same dwell meter i have. I has three leads, two go to the battery, and third, with green alligator clip on it will be one that goes to tach signal (which on older cars went to positive wire on distributor). Now, did you use the dwell needle to set timing. To use the timing light, do you still ground the connector and then play with the distributor. Im sure answer is yes, so I will come back on and let you know how it went cause I'm sure others would like to check out this method also. Ty

[link5186]

You got it, yes on both. My dad taught me that trick on distributor cars a long time ago. Makes setting timing and idle speed a quick, all-in-one job and you can easily watch to make sure you don't bump the dizzy over while tightening the bolts.

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