The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 1942 Chevy truck, timing questions

Just found ya'll, Thanks!!

Around 20 yrs ago my father drove it home, cut it off, it backfired and never ran again. I have found the timing mark, found that the mech advance springs are missing/broken, and hardwired the advance closed for now. I have spark but it won't fire. Now are the timing gears metal or nylon? I was hoping it was the dist's fault but now worried it has jumped timing. I haven't had help to really check the timing yet.
I have a second truck that I got running last night that I plan to use as ref. this weekend.
Any ideas/help?

If it's a 216, it has a fiber timing gear. It won't really jump, but it will break. Pull the valve cover and see if the pushrods move (you can start it and run it that way and it won't throw much oil around). Have you checked the compression? Rings or valves stuck from not running for 20 years will give you grief.

Well, it wouldn't restart back then.

If the dist is turning, doesn't that mean the cam is turning?

I'm gonna try to pull the timing cover enough to see the gears.

Is it true you have to pull the cam to change the gear?
I'm a **** 5.0 guy so these old 6's are new to me

Yes, if the dist is turning the cam is too. Have you checked the valve clearance? If the valves are too tight it won't start because of low compression. Also put new spark plugs in it, I had to do that to mine and it only sat a month. Also you might want to rebuild the carb as it is probably plugged up from sitting so long.

Well, I'm cheating the system
I have good spark, and am spraying gas into each cylinder just trying to get a hit.

Let me restate, he drove it home, cut it off, it backfired and WOULDN'T refire 20 yrs ago. He tried to fix and gave up. Present time, I got bored, and threw a batt in it and found the advance springs gone. So that kinda eliminates compression and all. It has to be timing. Hopefully I can get help and get a timing light on it.

Can the timing cover be pulled just enough to see the gear without pulling the balancer?
Mine has a cover? as I see no bolts holding the balancer on. Just the hand crank.

Why don't you just degree it without opening the timing cover? Just take off the valve cover and watch the rocker arms. You should be able to figure out when the valves open (I don't have the specs with me, they're at home)
You can't get the timing cover off without pulling the oil pan and the harmonic balancer. Some of the screws in the cover are from the back.

The flywheels of almost all 216's and 235's are marked for checking the cam timing.Its just a matter of lining up the UDC reference mark on the timing pointer and using a dial indicator to measure valve lift. I bet you could get a good enough idea without the dial indicater using feeler guages.A service manual explains the procedure in detail,only valve cover removal required.

This truck is back up in the woods so I have just been driving back to it to work. So not hauling many tools.

How come on the running truck the timing mark doesn't seem right? I marked the bb in the flywheel, and hook a light to the very front cyl, #1 right?, even playing with the advance knob I never see the mark thru the hole.

When I put the mark in the hole, the dist is past #1 and almost centered on #5 (front to back) mon both trucks. the one fires right up, the other seems to try but never really hits.
I'm gonna try to get a book this weekend and read up.

After solving the timing problem etc. and you know you have gas and good spark, try starting the truck with a 12 volt battery for the first time just to get her started. Worked great with my old 42' just as I was about to give up. That 12 volt battery cranked that engine real quick. Was nice to hear that old engine run after 30 years.

Already using 12v, have a resistor on the ignition side.

Which side of the engine were you looking at? There are two holes in my bellhousing, one on each side. The one on the passenger side above the starter is the one to use. (I made that mistake once) It doesn't take much for the timing to be off enough for the bb not to be in the hole, either, and it will still run ok. The hole is only about 5 degrees wide.

Wait, advance knob what advance knob? Are you talking about the little knob on the side of the distributor? That's the grease cup for the shaft, you are supposed to crank it in 1 turn every time you change the oil. You have to either loosen the setscrew on the octane selector (screwed into the block) or on the dist. shaft (the vac advance attatches there) to move the timing.

I'm gonna nail my father! Yes i was using the 1" hole on the drivers side. I wondered why it was such a pain to check, i could barely get the light wires to reach the batt and stretch across the motor. That and the one truck ran so smooth with no indication of the mark. I'll start over tonight.

Nah I knew about the grease cup, not sure why I said knob. I had the wife manually rotating the dist itself, pulling against the advance.

I knew it couldn't be that far off. Welp that's 2 nights wasted.
Of course the running truck toasted the water pump last night. I kept getting wet while checking the timing.

THANKS!!!!!!

Don't try pulling the timing cover.
The 216 timing cover cannot be removed without pulling the sump .
There are 2 bolts at the bottom of the cover that come through the front main brg cap , from the inside !
Also the sump is quite hard to reseal with the engine still in the truck .

Try a new set of points when you fit the new plugs too.

What are your points set at?

.
. Also, check where the rotor on the distributor is pointing when you have the mark on the flywheel lined up (in the correct hole),It should be pointing really close to the #1 position /plugwire.

Thanks guys, found the hole and POINTER! Anyway got the timing right and it wanted to start, I got the wife to crank while I poured gas in the carb and worked the throttle. it finally hit and purrs like a kitten now. Dad is gonna be [censored] he let it sit all these years thinking the timing gear stripped.
Now where do i find advance springs? Will the ones in a HEI advance curve fit? They are cheap and local.
Also, I can only find 3rd and 4th, and took awhile to find them. Is there just linkage underneath rusted?
The dump works still
Thanks again guys!

Oh and it won't hit until you held the throttle down, not sure if he had it this way or just from sitting. So that was another problem when I was just pouring gas in and trying it.

Even now the idle is way to low. He's gone all weekend so I can't ask him the scoop. It never had brakes so I'm wondering if that was his brake?