I haven't used a timing light in years and broke mine out and it doesn't work. But I have my dad's. I was looking at it and the Mac tl820p and it has an AC plug and one wire with an alligator clip. I'm used to DC models. and I am not sure how to hook it up. The clip is too small for the plug wire. stick something between the number one plug and the boot to clip onto? I just did my timing chain and water pump, so much fun. My truck runs but I would like to set the timing. Maybe someone here can advise me.
What year and model truck is it? Biggest thing I learned about timing lights was not to set them on the ground thinking it would save them from falling off. It was a really good way to forget about them and run them over.
Mac tl820p is used on Point Distributors and e-gap mag systems, small clip goes on pigtail wire from coil to dist. A flash back in time ,, Sloth
It basically mimics a Tach. Signal, BUT shows the timing marks on your balancer like a regular DC setup! You usually hook to the NEG side of the coil, but you can find other sources of signal from the dist!
That's what I thought also ,,, a timing light worked off a coil . I figured these newer vehicles, timing is set by the computer, as long as the timing chain and gears were correct. But I'll wait for HotDiggity to educate us ,, Here's a thought ,, could you use the timing light running it off of the #1 coilpack ,,, but timing is adjusted by turning the distributor .
Does it even have a Distributor? If it has coil packs it usually relies on a Crank or Cam sensor to trigger ignition, So a timing light would only be used to set the exact sensor/trigger adjustment ( if any) otherwise, the computer does all adjustments and is non serviceable mechanically, but may be adjusted/tuned via computer interface!
Years ago a friend of mine had a '71 International Scout with a 304 V8 engine. The engine had a pretty good coating of grime. He had trouble starting it and getting it to run well, despite repeated tune ups. One day he cleaned the engine off, and stamped into the valve cover were timing instructions, 10 degrees BTDC, to be timed on Number 8 cylinder. He, of course, had been timing it on Number one just as you would do with every other vehicle in the world.
International Scouts, Scout2s and Pick Up Trucks had/have a lot of quirks setting the timing being among them.
I was thinking about this and maybe my dad used this on his Cessna. since it had magnetos. I ended up buying a regular timing light for twenty bucks.
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