Just replaced my distributor as was getting bad misfiring all the time making me go under the bonnet every 3 minutes to mess with the cap and arm. There was loads of play in the mechanism compared with the one that I put in to replace it.

However, now I seem to have managed to get the timing ok, I have noticed the revs seem to fall, then rise slightly, - eventually going down to idle, after taking foot off accelerator. Does this mean the timing is still out?

Here's a video YouTube - Skoda Favorit Revs

Thanks in advance,

I take it the Fav has a cable accelerator, so it's not that the TB needs resetting? It looks almost as though there's a kink in the throttle cable that just makes it stick for a moment as it retracts...

I'm sure someone like Ken or Ross will have a better idea, however...

Some WD40 on the top of the accelerator pedal where the cable is along with some pushes has made the pedal feel lighter and don't seem to get the revs falling then staying in one place rising a little and then falling to idle, although the revs do take a bit of time to fall to idle - guess that's just the way the engine works though.

Suppose it wouldn't hurt to check the timing.

I recently had some timing issues after changing the gasget under the distributor extension tube.

I managed to sort it byt setting no.1 cylinder to TDC then taking the dizzy out and aligning the dizzy arm with no.1 spark plug.

Phil

there's no way of manually checking the timing on these

there's no way of manually checking the timing on these

So long as it doesn't misfire (kangaroo hop) throughout the rev range and with the engine cold and warm I guess it's set just about ok? According to Haynes a Skoda dealer should have some wizardry to check the timing somehow.

Well... the only timing you can manually check is the dizzy.

All i did was as i said... set engine to TDC then remove dizzy and put it back in so that the rotar arm was dead on the no.1 spark plug... that way when the spark is sent through the dizzy it ignites no.1 cylinder bang on time as it is at the top of its travel and ready for the fuel to be ignited and it worked a treat!

My timing was totally off though as when i removed the dizzy the gear inside the engine had shifted so i had to turn it with a screw driver to get it back to proper alignment.

Phil

make sure it is the trailing edge of the rotor that aligns with the number 1 pickup at tdc

Lol... yeh i did that... seems obvious but you never know! hehe

Worked like a charm for me... has got rid of my hesitation i was experiencing sometimes anyway!

make sure it is the trailing edge of the rotor that aligns with the number 1 pickup at tdc

Ah I put it perfectly centred (that TDC mark on the crank is very difficult to see), so this explains why things improved by moving it left. Will have to check against the marks again.

Yes that mark is incredibly dificult to see!!! You certainly can't see it from the bottom off the car and you have to look at a slight angle... always takes me at least 5 mins to find it!!!

Deffo isn't as clear as it is in the haynes!!

Yeh get it aligned up and check the rotor arms lines up with the no.1 sparky!!

the thing you have to remember is that the ignition timing is not static, it advances as the speed of the engine increases. so it is possible that as the timing increases because the rotor arm is not aligned properly, the arm has allready passed the contact before the spark occurs, causing a missfire or tracking, hence the need to align it with the trailing edge of the contact

I'm not used to working on an engine that doesn't have an ECU and no dissie, or timing marks on the crank pulley!

Just understood fully what TeflonTom was getting at about lining the rotar arm up...

You mean to set the rotar arm slightly to the side of the timing mark and no.1 cylinder so that by the time the engine turns and sparks then the rotar arm will be on the no.1 pick-up point on the dizzy.

I lined it up perfectly on the no.1 spark plug and little dot on the edge of the dizzy and it seemed to do the trick.

Just thought... bet the MPi engine is so much easier in this respect! No dizzy timing etc to worry about!

Phil

Just done as described, TDC mark at 0, trailing edge of rotor arm at number 1 - car feels very different compared to before changing the distributor, particularly engine braking, almost seems non-existent at times - not sure if that's a good or a bad thing - but at least it runs.