Ok, a co-worker of mine asked me to check his timing, and either advance or retard it if it needed it. Well, according to the specs sticker on the radiator cover, it's suppose to be at 15*. Well, as I'm about to get ready to check the timing, I couldn't figure out where the vacuum advance line was. The Regal is an 83 (v6, 4.1), does it have an actual vacuum hose? Or is there an electrical wire that needs to be unplugged in order to properly check/set timing? Well, he wanted me to try to check it anyway, so I figured I'd try to see if I could find a vacuum hose. The only thing I found was what looked like a vacuum canister that sat in the passenger side of the motor, just off to the rear of the carb. Is this the vacuum canister? I went ahead and told my buddy to unplug the hose and plug it with his finger while I checked where the timing was currently at. It read at 36*! (initail timing) :eek: I went ahead and retarded the timing down to what the spec sticker said, 15*. He turned it on, test drove it, and was very happy as to how it drove. Well, he went on his merry way home, then called me about an hour later and said that he couldn't get the car to turn on. He said that it would only crank over, but sounded like it didn't have any spark. Would the timing have anything to do with the problem? To me, it sounded like an electrical problem, most likely a bad ground wire somewhere. I gave him a run down on what to check and he said that he was gonna give it a try. Well, he calls me back about a half hour later and said that he got home. He said that he checked the wires and nothing looked out of the ordinary. He just let the car sit to cool down, then cranked it and it turned on. He also went on to tell me that he had this same problem before, had his heads worked on, then the problem never came back. What do you guys think?

Ok, now onto the Chevy 6'er. My co-worker's brother in law wants me to check the timing on his Silverado. He said it's a '91 with a 6 cylinder in it. Now my question is, does this year/model truck have a vacuum hose? Or do I have to unplug that red wire underneath the passenger side dash? I have a '95 Suburban, so I'm familiar with which wire it is :)

Thanks in advance to everyone! :beers: :thumbsup: :)

*Bump* Anyone?

lx,
83 Regal is probably all electronic. Need to jumper two pins on the aldl plug, cannot remember which ones at the moment.

Yeah, it's got an HEI distributor. I have no idea which wire it would be, and I know for sure it's not gonna be the tach or bat wires on the distributor itself, which is why I tried looking underneath the dash, but couldn't find anything.

There is a 4 wire conector at the base of dist. After engine is warm shut unplug and restart check and adjust timing.You may have a check engine lite on after you do this so take neg cable off for a few minutes when done. You can also try to jump A & B at the aldl and that should put it in base timing but sometimes may not work.

the pickup should have a brown/black wire over at the junction block on the passenger side firewall, your Sub should be the same.