I finally have my crane xr700 hooked up. With invaluable help of my friend, neighbor and autophile Stelios I would still be trying to get TDC lined up and talking to myself in the garage. Both Randy's and Johnny's write up's are essential reads and great resources that make the install go much smoother. Finally talking wiring when your mind is shot with Mars "the man" Mann is nothing short of a lesson that is worth it's weight in gold.

For the install, I followed more by what Johnny did vs. what Randy did. I installed my kit with the distributor still in the car. This way is a little tighter and requires being able to be incredibly patient and meticulous. Also having a magnetic tool grabber in one hand during the process certainly didn't hurt...:) There are two different disks that work, each pictured on Randy & Johnny's diagrams. For me, the disk Randy used was incredibly loose on the distributor shaft, so I went with the one that Johnny used. This MIGHT be from different distributors for different years as both Johnny and I have a roundie and Randy has a square light.

This might be obvious to some, but not to others (like me). Where and how you have the optical disk in the car isn't really important (eg the marks on the trigger do not have to line up with the TDC markings) but that since the distributor turns clockwise, you need to align the optical trigger light slightly left of the closest opening on the plastic shutter. When you look at the trigger (at least mine) there were three little lines in the plastic that helped me gauge this. These pieces do not have to line up with your TDC marks on your distributor.

The addendum to Randy's write up on getting top dead center is not only 100% necessary but really the best way to do it. A couple of things that i learned with this project about finding top dead center that will hopefully help someone else. I do not have the luxury to be able to push the car all around in gear until TDC is found. so what i did was jack the car up, and put a few pieces of 2x4's under one of the rear tires. then i lowered the car down ever so much so that the one tire was firmly planed on the wood while the other was off the ground just slightly. then put the car in 4th gear. while you turn the free wheel in a clockwise manner have another set of eyes look for the cam lobes of #1 to be pointing down AND for the timing mark on the cam to be under the oil bar on the head. Then carefully put the car back on the ground. IF you can get a second set of eye for just 5 minutes this was the easiest way to do this in my small garage.

In the end, ~15 degrees more timing was needed to get it spot on. I still can't get over how simple it turns over when it's cold.


(picture courtesy of Stelios Dokianakis)
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Pittsburgh, PA
72 2002 Colorado
89 325ix
04 x5 4.4

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