I am trying to time my 89 toyota 4x4. I took my truck to have it smoged, the tec said that either the timing is off like 30 degres or the pulley is on wrong. the truck runs fine. I put the 1st cylinder at top dead center, the mark on the pulley is at 0 lined up exactly, (should the rotor be pointing at the #1 distributer wire)
Yes, unless it’s “180 degrees off”… In that case turn the crankshaft one more complete turn back to TDC and the rotor should now be pointing to #1. The crankshaft must turn twice to make the distributor turn once… But you can’t really time an engine that way. You must use a strobe light connected to #1 spark-plug wire…8-10 degrees BTDC with the vacuum line to the distributor disconnected…
It could not be 30 degrees and still run fine.
Did it not pass?
What did the teck say the reason it did not pass.
If it passed and runs fine I would leave it alone.
You need to clarify your post. When the #1 cylinder is at TDC, where does the rotor point? If its pointed in the opposite direction, then you need to rotate the engine one more time.
If it appears to be firing ok, but with the engine stopped at TDC on #1, the rotor points about 30? off of the #1 post, then the distributor is off a tooth. Remove the hold down bolt, pull the distributor up out of its hole. As you do this, the rotor will turn. When its up far enough, turn the rotor 30? in the direction needed to get it to line up when you reinsert the distributor. The rotor should rotate back into the correct position.
I assume you are following the directions on the emissions sticker on the underside of the hood? You need to jump two of the terminals on the diagnostic connector to disable the ESC before timing the engine. IIRC, this truck doesn’t have a vacuum advance so there’s no vacuum line to worry about.
However! I had this exact same truck and for some reason the timing didn’t change like it was supposed to when I jumped those two terminals. So if I timed it like the sticker said to, it ran really poorly. I ended up just timing it the old fashioned “advanced enough to accelerate well, retarded enough that it doesn’t knock” method and it always ran great and last I heard was still running around 50k miles later like that.
But I’m not subject to any emissions tests, so it’s possible it wouldn’t have passed. I will also mention that what I decided was the likely issue was that the Throttle Position Sensor was either faulty or out of adjustment, which was preventing the engine from properly adjusting the spark at idle.