Timing question (setting initial/total)
 

"Thought" i had i timing set. When i bumped throttle to 3k rpms the light started bouncing all over. Brand new motor and ran like a swiss watch on the builders stand with and hei dist. Im running msd with a msd box. Did some reading and sounds like it could be due to the msd box and my timing light with the advance dial. Anyone else heard of this?

yes,a lot of advance style timing lites will give a incorrect reading.i have a 400 dollar snap on that goes crazy with any msd box.

Trade him even up and be happy.

Crazy huh ? And a 25+ year old cheaper Craftsman advance dial light doesn't.

Ebay new around 75.00

i had one of those,it took a crap years ago.

Well chit. If set the dial to 0 and go off 34 degree mark on the balancer and the tab would that work? Planning on going to the water tomorrow. Ill try to find another light.

Also, Make sure your leads from distributor, are wired properly. Purple, does not go to purple. I wanna say on those, its purple(dist side) goes to green, and purple goes to orange(dist side)

that will work.

This is most likely your issue. I had the exact same deal happen. Ran fine, but timing light issue.

Thanks guys. I will check wireing and make sure its correct and try setting again. Will report back later tonight.

I run 2 MSD boxes & distributors, I have 2 Craftsman timing lights with the dial, one is over 20 yrs.old, one is 5 yrs. old, both work perfect on my MSD ignitions.

With custom engines using after market ignition systems or the Mercury V6 ignition box, we just run the engines up to 4000+ RPM & lock at the targeted advance. In our case, we set at 40 degrees total. This can be done at the dock or on a hose. IMO, the initial advance curve prior to full advance is not relative.

Borrowed my cousins light and set it to 34 total, at the ramp. Ran flawless the entire time out. Think im good to go. Think my light is cheap pos. It was given to me and looks to be a harbor freight special. Lesson learned.

Friend of mine just ran into the same issue with same light on a HP HEI, seems these high $$$ lights are effected by RFI badly...my cheap no name light works fine !!!!