Had to change distributors on Black Bertram's engine because the seal is bad and had sprayed oil up onto the rotor over time. Plus the differences in connectors from 96 to 98, I just pulled it and am about to put the other back on.

So I've got the engine at tdc, the oil pump at 11 o clock, and the distributor marked. Is my 11 o'clock not quite right? Because this is the result:


And it's aligned on the bolt hole, which is obscured in this pic.





I can't roll the distributor back without it not going in at all, or going to the previous spark point. My recollection was that the rotor needs to be smack on #1 spark point on the distributor while at tdc.

Any thoughts?


Thanks.

 

Alright, I turned the pump groove to what's almost 10-o'clock



That seems to have let me set the timing pretty dang on.



How's that look?
I guess the worst thing at this point is that it just won't turn over, right?

 

11 o clock and first picture as long as you sure it on TDC compression stroke. Just going past no 1.

 

OKAY. thank you. For some reason I thought it had to be RIGHT on the spark at TDC.

Also, I noticed that the marks aren't easily seen in that photo, but they're dead on:





I'll go redo that...

 

Marks will line up twice once on compression stroke and once on exhaust stroke. Must be compression.

 

Yep. No worries there. Learned that lesson with the last xj... I've got the engine on a stand and can see the valves' position. Having such a large gap between these two projects I forget little details and start second guessing. One of the reasons I joined up instead of lurking eternally.