I am having a nightmare of a time placing my timing pointer on my 1979 351W out of a Galaxy. I bought a billet adjustable 11 o clock pointer but none of my timing marks on my balancer even come close to being 0 when the motor is on TDC. Help please. I am using a aftermarket balancer from ProProducts.
Timing pointer location
- Thread starter Maxamil
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jerry S
New Member
Maxamil said:
Sounds familiar. I purchased a Summit billet steel harmonic balancer and 2 Ford Racing Billet timing pointers at $75 each, neither of which points to zero. At the end of the day, I gave up. I found TDC but using a piston stop, drew a line on the balancer where 0 is, and moved on.
SoCalCruising
Founding Member
There are three pointer locations on SBF engines: 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock. They correspond to C-, B- & A-key positions, respectively. Your harmonic damper & pointer should be purchased with the same key. You probably have an A-key damper for early motor/front cover, but a B or C pointer, which is what are offered in billet from Ford Racing. You should also consider your water pump outlet side, BTW. The pointer is generally on the opposite side of the outlet. If you have a driver's side outlet, then your pointer is correct and you should either change dampers or tape your balancer to get the timing marks right. If the latter, find exactly TDC on #1 piston, position pointer and tape the balancer so that "0" (TDC) is at the pointer.
302 coupe
Founding Member
Socal hit it right. Basically, you have to have a matched water pump, timing cover, pointer, and balancer for it all to work together. Just fords way of keeping things interesting.
SoCalCruising
Founding Member
jerry S
New Member
302 coupe said:
In my case, when I ordered the Summit billet steel harmonic balancer, I asked the Summit sales rep to verify that the Ford Racing billet timing pointer would fit. He transferred me to a tech guy who flipped through some paper and said yes, with 4 degrees of adjustability, I was ok. I wasn't sure whether I needed the B key or the C key and the sales guy said order both and see which one fits. We will issue a call tag for the one that doesn't fit and you can return it. Neither fits.
302 coupe
Founding Member
SoCalCruising
Founding Member
Yeah, that's what I did. My Superdamper was marked for 11 o'clock, but I have a pass. side water pump outlet (requires a-key - 2 o'clock), so I taped the damper after carefully finding TDC. Works fine.
SoCalCruising
Founding Member
Jerry - what front cover do you have? The Ford Racing universal with mech. fuel pump boss? If so, those are made to accommodate a crank trigger, too. You have to cut off the crank trigger stuff in order to mount the billet pointer. Is it that you can't mount the pointer, or is the problem that it mounts but points incorrectly when at TDC?
Thank you all for replying to my post i think Im going to do the timing tape fix. im gonna try to find TDC by removing my timing cover and ligning up the cam and crank gear on the timing chain. If i remember correctly there where arrows or dots on them and if they line up it means your at TDC.
jerry S
New Member
SoCalCruising said:
My timing cover is stock. Both pointers mount just fine but neither point to TDC. My original pointer was on the driver's side and that is where I installed the new ones. The pointers are for the B key (11:00 position) and the C key on the 10:00 position. I guess that these pointers are incompatible with the larger than stock diameter harmonic balancer.
SoCalCruising
Founding Member
