Hello, this is my first post here. I'm a novice mechanic and I'm having an issue with the new 1980 300sd that I purchased a month ago.
I checked the timing by wrenching the crank clockwise until the two marks located on the backside of the cam chain sprocket lined up as perfect as I could get them. The number 1 exhaust cam lobe is pointing 90 degrees to the port side and the intake is around 50 degrees or so pointing toward the starboard side. Then looking down at the gauge by the crank pully I see that the pointer is at around the 17 degree mark to the left of the zero mark. The chain is tight. Any ideas as to why the gauge would be displaying 17 degrees off from zero? Thanks for any input.