I am going to pull the distibutor off of the B230FT engine to fix my oil leak so I figured I would check the timing before pulling it off. My haynes manual says it should be set to 12 degrees. The timing gauge is kind of hard to read, but it looks like a "10" label is on the right side and a "20" toward the extreme left. I would assume that correct timing would put it slightly to the left of the "10" degree line. The plastic part with the timing lines is so far away from the timing mark itself, you get a lot of parallax error but my timing is to the right of the 10 mark which would be maybe 8 degrees or so I think. I assume I need to adjust it back to 12 or so. Please advise if this is correct.

Assumptions:

1. The number 1 spark plug is at the front of the engine (closest to fan)
2. I did not see any vacuum lines to disconnect from distributor
3. I was at idle but don't have a tach other than on car, idle speed seems correct though.

Thanks for all the help
Randy

Your assumptions are correct. The distributor drive is offset so you cannotr re-install the distributor out of time. If you mark the distributor before removing it, and re-install it the same, it will be timed the same.

Your leak is probably the shaft seal.

Thanks for the reply. I understand about the offset, that part is in my service manual. I also understand about marking it before removing it;however, I am just going to install a new one. What I really want to check on is whether or not I should change the existing timing to 12 degrees or leave it where it is at about 8 degrees. This is how I received the car. It's actually running fairly well, but I want to make sure that I don't change it unless it's wrong. Just checking because I don't have that much experience with engines and thought that I could have overlooked something.

Thanks
Randy

Change the timing to 12 degrees, just as specified in the Service Manual.

Thank you sir!