i brought my timing light out of storage only to find it doesnt work anymore.whats a good,durable brand for a reasonable price? i dont want anymore autozone cheapos.has anyone used a husky brand from home depot?

Bowtie455,

Whatever brand you get, make sure you get the adjustable timimg type. I purchased mine at Sears, it ok, and has worked fine for the past four years or so. The adjustable type are great, no need for timinig tapes, just adjust the timing on the light and your ready to go.

Fred.

thanks.i'm kinda partial to sears products.i'll check into it.

Bowtie what brand was your light? Actron? How old was it?

The Mac timing light that replaced my Sears is about twice as bright as the one I got rid of. Bought the Sears light in '78, and replaced it in the mid-80's. So no telling what the modern ones are like.

Get one with removable leads. Never know when you're going to burn the cable on a header tube.

MSD doesn't have good things to say about dial back "advance" timing lights. My Mac dial-back seems to work fine with both MSD-5 and MSD-6AL.

Latest toy: Snap-On magnetic timing indicator. I just need to get a timing pointer to suit the pickup. Tried it on my '88 work truck, works REALLY SLICK.

I like my dial-back Sunpro (Actron, actually, same company, different names) light. Just don't drop them hard. Had one bust from being dropped hard. But other than that, it works fine, and is probably older than I am (I'm 19).

Good tip on the removable leads, I did burn the part that goes around the plug wire with a header tube once. Still works fine though.

I burnt mine and now I gotta use tape to hold it shut.

My dad's is a Sears non adjustable and it has metal for the plug wire clamps....none of this cheap plastic.

I can only wonder if what Sears sells now uses plastic or metal for the plug wire clamp.

Originally posted by Schurkey:


MSD doesn't have good things to say about dial back "advance" timing lights. DUI doesnt think much of dial backs either. I use a standard older Sunpro timing light, but I have an aftermarket indexed balancer.

I have both types and have used multiple dial-backs. I must say the one I have now is really nice. It's all electronic and indicates the RPM right on the display. It allows you to click the dial-back one degree ata time. Nice piece. Summit sells them for $109 I think.

Summit Part#EQU-3568

Troy.

I use Sears dial-back for tuning adjustments and an MSD for high RPM timing checks. Both lights are excellent quality.

I've got most brands, Sears, MAC, a Snap-On, and an OTC. The OTC is probably the best. If you're using a dial back light (must easier to use) it's a good idea to actually check how acturate it is.

I've used a Craftsman dial back on MSD box ignition before, worked fine for me.

But on the removable lead. I did burn one up one time on the gun, and tried to get a new lead. You have to special order it, and it cost almost as much as a whole new timing light, graemlins/angry.gif . I've learnd to put the lead on the wire as far away from the headers as possible. :D

I'm not happy with my Sears dial back light at all!!!

The dial back knob has a lot of play in it. I've been able to get better adjustment by the old school seat of the pants method or by ear than I can with the Sears light.

I have the MSD timing light. The MSD timing light is a lot better than my brothers craftsman timing light, the MSD has no plastic parts on the inductive pick up.

its a sunpro..i bought the lowest priced model so i guess i got my moneys worth out of it.it still ticks me off because it has been used very little and looks brand new inside and out.it just decided to die while sitting in my tool bin.thanks for all the input.

Hey Bowtie, before you toss it in the trash I could use the wiring harness if the clamp hasn't burned yet. I have the chrome Actron...not sure but I think your harness is the same as mine. Let me know.

I use a Mac timing light. Like a 150 model I think it is. Its digital and although I havent used it much. It is very nice and easy to use.

Chris.

Whatever you do, DON'T buy a dialback light! I have found them to be very inaccurate, at least the ones I have tried (including a snap on, a ferret digial, and one other - can't remember brand). They are +/- 10 degrees at RPM and that ain't good enough for me.

That's interesting. I guess I'll have to mark my balancer @ 36degrees and set the dial at 36 and see if it lines up.

Thanks for the tip, 66 283.

http://www.ferretinstruments.com/Product_Pages/84/84.html

this is the timing light i have, its the same light that msd sells under their name. i have tested this light against my regular non advance light and i have found no difference in readings between the two.

the nice thing about this light is the strobe is extremely bright, bright enough to see in the direct sunlight. the leads are also replaceable as is the bulb, which is a plus since these things are expensive.

I have two Sears timing lights. The newer one with the plastic pickup melted on my header and has a rubber band on it now. The old one has a metal inductive pickup, and works flawlessly. They don't make them like they used to.

Brandon,

I have an MSD light and it doesn't look like the ones on the ferret website. I tried to set timing with the digital ferret (this was years ago) and it was WAY off what my simple MSD showed. They matched at idle but when I brought the RPM up they differed greatly. Now I run crank trigger so it doesn't much matter but I still don't trust dial backs.

Another was I believe a sears dial back - a friend set his timing with it on a chassis dyno, his blown small block ran like ****, he checked it again with a better light and found that he was running about 40 deg total when he thought he had 32.

Also, there was a comparison on a magazine a couple of years ago (I acknowledge it was probably funded by one manufacturer so it might be biased) but they found the sears non-dial back the most accurate for the money with aftermarket ignitions. I think the MSD matched the numbers but costs more. ANybody chime in with the article?

JUNKYARDDOG,before i send the harness to you i'm obligated to let my buddy(whose garage i'm using to work on my chevelle)have whatever parts he needs to get his broken light repaired.i don't think he'll need the harness as his and mine seem to be in great shape.if he doesnt need it youre welcome to it.anything to help a fellow hot rodder! :D

Ryan

msd makes two lights according to my msd book, the #8990 which is chrome and almost looks like the chrome sears unit.

the #8991 is the same unit as the ferrett, the msd unit is self powered which mine is not. but ferret does make a self powered unit which is 100% identical to the msd unit. the msd light is supposed to work with any of the msd capacitive discharge boxes.

i have an old cheap plastic sears non advance light, i had marked the balancer at 36 degrees using a formula i found here. then i set the total to 36 with the ferrett and checked it again with the sears unit. there was no difference between the two.

i will admit i am not using any type of capacitive discharge box, so this may be the reason im not having any problems. one day i plan to upgrade to a digital 6 and will check to see if there is a difference, i sure hope not.

Originally posted by bowtie455:
JUNKYARDDOG,before i send the harness to you i'm obligated to let my buddy(whose garage i'm using to work on my chevelle)have whatever parts he needs to get his broken light repaired.i don't think he'll need the harness as his and mine seem to be in great shape.if he doesnt need it youre welcome to it.anything to help a fellow hot rodder! :D Thanx man. Just shoot me an e-mail when you find something out.

bowtie,
My timing-light is a Hella!
A good one and thats for sure!
I have a vacuum tester and compression tester from Actron/Sunpro!..........also very good!

Eddy.

Originally posted by RatONaStick:
Ryan

msd makes two lights according to my msd book, the #8990 which is chrome and almost looks like the chrome sears unit.

the #8991 is the same unit as the ferrett, the msd unit is self powered which mine is not. but ferret does make a self powered unit which is 100% identical to the msd unit. the msd light is supposed to work with any of the msd capacitive discharge boxes.

i have an old cheap plastic sears non advance light, i had marked the balancer at 36 degrees using a formula i found here. then i set the total to 36 with the ferrett and checked it again with the sears unit. there was no difference between the two.

i will admit i am not using any type of capacitive discharge box, so this may be the reason im not having any problems. one day i plan to upgrade to a digital 6 and will check to see if there is a difference, i sure hope not. I have the cheapie chrome one. The ferret that I used that was WAY OFF was the digital one they have pictured.

The friend's blown small block that had major timing differences with the dialback also - he ran a msd digital 6.