Racintweek

but you only hook up the light to the #1 plug wire. how can it tell when #2 fires??

Xgenturbo

It cant. Nor is it necessary. The reason you hook it up to No.1 is because No.1 is the one set to TDC when you do your timing, its also the only one you use to measure your timing. And if No.1 is right, they all are.

Racintweek

i know that, i was questioning the other guy's logic

0b00st0

No it's not. Timing guns operate in a very simple way. They trigger the light when there is current flowing through a spark plug wire.

To advance this, they simply delay the flash of the light. The delay is calculated by RPM's. It is very simple.

If you set the gun to zero, then the resulting flash is whatever the ecu is triggering the coil at.



Like Mista Bone said above about the dial ones. They are only accurate for a certain RPM, because they have no logic circuit to apply the appropriate delay for different RPMs. They still work however, but they are largely inaccurate unless you know their limitations.

krustindumm

look at my signature, then question my logic

Besides being a master certified technician (btw, i took all the tests at one testing period, took a total of about 3 hours for all 8, and averaged 88%) I'm certified by Nissan, Toyota (two teests left to master Toyota certification), and Honda. I placed 1st in state at VICA last year (with a point gap between me & second greater than the gap between 2nd and 4th, 2nd place was a friend of mine, also ASE master certified), 4th place at national VICA (1.6% behind first, i'm pretty pissed about that, I wrote down all the answers at one station backwards, had they been in the correct order I would have been ~2.5% ahead of 1st).

So basically, if I'm giving someone an answer, it is correct. If I'm making a guess, I will say so, but I'm usually correct then too.

Racintweek

i guess "questioning your logic" might not have been the right words. i wasnt saying you were wrong, i was seriously asking. thats the whole reason behind me making this thread, to find out how it works.





and FYI: just because you are a master tech doesnt mean you dont make mistakes no one is perfect

krustindumm

says you

Racintweek

i highly doubt you've never had a come-back. there are a few techs at the shop i worked at that have 20+ years experience and are master techs and ---- up sometimes.