timing light

[CHRIS UNGER]

Will a reglar timing light read through 24v wires. thanks

[kwai]

Not through the stock shielded spark plug cables. It will work fine if you make a adaptor using a standard plug wire. Just hook the 12v timing light to a 12v source.

There is an adaptor set you can get that looks like this: The timing light adaptor is in the middle.



I also have made an adaptor by cutting a section out of the metal shielding from an old spark plug wire. It works the same as the adaptor.

[Mikel]

Just hook up the 12V side to another car...

[MJCougler]

I replied to this post to bump it up to ask a secondary question.

I have a 12v civilian distributor in my truck. There are bias resistors stepping the coil voltage down to 12v. In trying to check my timing, I just smoked my 20-year old Sears Penske non-inductive timing light. Any ideas why?

I used a secondary vehicle to clamp the timing light 12v leads to. The timing light would not light. My digital multimeter verified there was 12v on the alligator clips. About 30 seconds later I noticed smoke coming from the timing light.

Does each vehicle "ground" need to be tied together? Does the spark side of the timing light circuitry need to see the #1 cylinder spark in relation to the 12v ground? Does the secondary battery method only work for inductive pick-up timing lights? Is it possible there too much "spark" voltage on the #1 cylinder?

I now have an e-bay bid on a newer digital Snap-on timing light with a tachometer. I don't want to smoke this one when it comes in. Any ideas?

I was going to bid on this military timing light but they could not verify it worked:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Milit...motiveQ5fTools


Thanks in advance,

[randygar]

The lack of a common ground would seem most likely, although I wouldn't have expected it to damage the light, just not work. Make sure your next one is an inductive pickup...

--Randy

[Mikel]

We just timed my friend's M715. I hooked up the timing light to a 12V battery and put a piece of wire between the armored cable and plug number one. The pick-up from the timing gun went over that piece of wire (obviously the armored cable would not allow the pick up to work) and the gun worked fine.

I replied to this post to bump it up to ask a secondary question.

I have a 12v civilian distributor in my truck. There are bias resistors stepping the coil voltage down to 12v. In trying to check my timing, I just smoked my 20-year old Sears Penske non-inductive timing light. Any ideas why?

I used a secondary vehicle to clamp the timing light 12v leads to. The timing light would not light. My digital multimeter verified there was 12v on the alligator clips. About 30 seconds later I noticed smoke coming from the timing light.

Does each vehicle "ground" need to be tied together? Does the spark side of the timing light circuitry need to see the #1 cylinder spark in relation to the 12v ground? Does the secondary battery method only work for inductive pick-up timing lights? Is it possible there too much "spark" voltage on the #1 cylinder?

I now have an e-bay bid on a newer digital Snap-on timing light with a tachometer. I don't want to smoke this one when it comes in. Any ideas?

I was going to bid on this military timing light but they could not verify it worked:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Milit...motiveQ5fTools


Thanks in advance,

[Don Cavey]

Even if the plug wire is not connected to the plug (and the engine will run rough), you should be able to clamp around the exposed part of the wire and get enough signal to trigger the light...