When I tried to adust the timing on my new 85 GSL that i just picked up, I losened the two screws on the vaccuum advance to adjust the trailing timing (which was massivly far off), but when i moved it NOTHING HAPPENED !?!?!? I took the distributor cap off and moved it, and everything inside is still attached. When i move it, the stuff inside moves too... Why wouldnt moving it affect the timing?? How is that possible? The car is running pretty rough, as the leading timing is dead on but the trailing is so far off its not even funny, when you look at the pin the line is supposed to be practically under it, if not compleatly. Well, my line is about a half inch toward the passenger side of the car. As you can see I really need to adjust it, but the adjustment the manual talks about doesnt work !! Help!

~T.J.

 

By the way my fist thought was "vaccuum leak". The only problem with this theroy is that i cant seem to find any ...

~T.J.

 

Had that same problem!!!!!!!!

VACUUM LEAK!! means that you aren't getting vacuum pressure at the distributor. Just get some silicone tubing and start replacing every little tube. Also check the vacuum pump to see if it's working. In my case it wasn't the tubes that went bad, it was the plastic T-shape joints that connect 3 tubes together that had broken. I found 2 cases like that on mine!!

Good Luck...

Vacuum pump is the horizontally mounted cylinder shaped part mounted on the fire wall beside the washer fluid bottle. With a plastic tube coming out of one end and the other end attaches to the throttle.

 

Correction . There should be zero vacuum pressure reaching your distributor when timing. Also, if your car is idleing at 750rpm, it shouldnt matter if you have a leak or not. Pull you're distributor, line it up and drop it back in.