Timing with electronic dist.

[charlesea]

I have an electronic FS dist. that came on the car when I bought it, Also a Brumfield HC head with a timing indicator on the pulley, B engine,Webber carb and Mitchell OD. This is on 29 4 Door.
My question how should the timing degree be set with this set up, at idle to get the best perfomance.
Thanks
Charles

[quickchange]

Charles , have same set up on a slant i bought , also having problems, its 6 volt & when we set at tdc with timming light it kicks back on the starter as if too far advanced but once running its fine & feels right , sounds right , just it kicks back on starting , so will be watching for solutions. Winter in NZ , Keep the salt dry this year please,

[Del in NE Ohio]

I have exactly the same set up in my '29 Murray T/S. The FSI unit right out of the box I think delivers too much total advance for the Brumfield head. Get a timing light.
I have mine set-up for max advance of 26 degrees. With the max advance at that point, I now have idle at -3 degrees. I am told that you can change the springs in the centrifugal advance so you can have a the total advance you want and not have to idle at a minus setting. Anyway, I have been using this set-up for approx. 6K miles, works good. No pre-ignition and smooth power.

[Synchro909]

I have a FS ignition system on my '29 Phaeton and love it even though timing is a little tricky. I gave up on using TDC as a starting point for installation and later learned that they had a problem for a while with the sender unit in the shaft not being set up accurately. Seems a programming glitch in their computer controlled machinery changed a little with each unit. The errors were cumulative so after a while, they were waaaay out.
I set mine to TDC, only for it to be too far advanced, just as the guys above are describing. I could make it ping easily too so I backed it off a little at a time and went out and tried to get it to ping again. Once I had done that a couple of times, the motor ran smoother, no pings and no kick backs. I have installed a degree scale (readily available from vendors) at the front of the motor and put a nick in the crank shaft pully to line up with 0 degrees. I can set it to that again any time but I can't use that mark for any other purpose because it isn't really TDC I;d use the screw in the timing gear as per original setup for that. The motor sounds and behaves beautifully now.
Quickchange and Del, I suggest you try moving the timing back a LITTLE at a time till these symptoms go. Trial and error might not sound too scientific but it worked for me.

[barkleydave]

I also have FS and concur. I started at TDC using pin. Have timing indicator installed.

Sweet spot was -3 degrees ATDC.

1000+ MILES..... IDLE GREAT, POWER GREAT,NO KICK BACK,NO PING ,LEANED OUT GAV 1/4 OPEN,
EASY STARTS

[AL in NY]

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I have the FS Zipper distributor in my 30 CCPU with the Brumfield 5.9 head and Stipe 340 cam. I concur that the set advance curve is too much using this combination. I have modified the advance curve to a total of 25 degrees and also modified the distributor itself so I can retard the ignition timing while driving. Using the steering wheel spark lever, I pull it down to reach a stop/set point for initial ignition timing at idle. When I need to retard the advance I just more the spark control lever up. I have a total of 15 degrees of retard. I set my idle timing at 2 degrees BTC and generally let the distributor advance work while driving on flat or near flat roads. When I need to "put my foot into it", I retard the spark using the steering wheel control lever. I have nearly 10,000 miles on this setup and it's been working good for me.

[charlesea]

Thanks so much for all the replies. I will experiment with the timing because I have gotten a ping when I pushed it pretty hard which I do not like. Charles