You tube videos are working - next up photo bucket video doesn't work for me any more.

Send my regards to Brian when you see him

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Will do. He says he's very busy.

Was a problem with Photobucket. I used their organize feature and deleted a bunch of old pics and now I realize that's when the problem started. All pics and videos that I wanted to keep were still there but I could only open pics, not videos. I just went into the organize feature again, clicked oldest first, then newest first and my Photobucket videos are working again.

I think I'm going to stop using Photobucket for videos which has been kind of a kludgy experience for me. I am still trying to figure out on Youtube how to post a pic link of a video instead of a text link. Anyone?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I would have liked to have this done already but I have not heard back from Brian Carlton since his initial email reply. I've emailed him 3 times since with no reply. Hope he is OK.

In the mean time I am looking for someone else locally with the RIV A-B lights. Anyone else in NYC and vicinity with one please PM me. I prefer not doing mail order rental of the tool if i can avoid it.

I have more ideas such as miniaturizing the timing light so it can be mounted with a USB Borescope video camera to video record the timing while the car is being driven. But I do not want to start this new project until I can demonstrate that my timing light is at least as accurate as the factory tool.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Brian Carlton stopped by today with his RIV A-B light and we did a comparison of it to my RIV Xenon timing light.






This is the timing (a little past 15 deg ATDC) with the A-B light with A LED on, slightly past but B LED not on due to a problem with the sensor contacts (more on that later). Can't see the LED's due to the sun being out/ contrast ratio.




This is a video of the timing light. If you pause it at the right frame, you can see the marks better (15 deg ATDC).
CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO





This is a close up of the A-B sensor contacts. The right chisel point contact is A, left is B, which is defined by the alignment pin on the right of the body. These chisel points are spring loaded and there are internal contacts which only makes when the chisel points ride up on the tang of the IP shorting it to ground/ completing the circuit and lighting the LED(s). The contact B was not making contact internally with the same pressure as contact A and required a little more pressure as I found out by bench testing. Brian left the A-B light with me and I will try to clean the internal contacts and do the test again. But even with the B LED not functioning, the comparison is still very close.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Cleaning the RIV A-B sensor contacts did not help. I can make the B LED light on the bench but not when it is installed on the IP. Still, the comparison was worthwhile IMO.

I will be offering free timing checks in zip 11357 starting Sun May 17th ending Sun May 25th, after which I will be offering it in the rental program. PM me for details.

If you have engines 617.95x, 601, 602, 603, 605, 606 my timing light should work. I have only tested it on a 617.952 so far but the RIV port specs are the same for the other engines so it should work theoretically.

Any questions or comments? Lots of views but no comments other than from Stretch.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I have the Actron (sp?) light (similar to yours). What would you charge to make me a sensor package - I don't mind if it's in a separate box and actually that might make it easier to switch from Diesel to Otto-cycle.

Dan

I built the RIV timing circuitry into the timing light figuring most diesel owners who want to rent it will not have an inductive timing light.

I can build you one in a box so you can use your own timing light. Will pm you later.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Quietly observing and appluading, I'll be needing this info when I get mine running.

__________________
$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

Thanks for the applause! Let me know when you need it. You won't be disappointed.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Now it looks like you've got things up and running - how about a little bit of investigative journalism?

I've always wondered about the performance of the timing device - FSM says it adjusts about 10 degrees of the timing - and I kind of felt this adjustment would start at about 2000 rpm...

...now you are a man with the new toy =>

How about plotting the change in timing vs rpm for me?

Are you interested?

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

My 85 300D is all buttoned up with the timing set. I do have an old video of the timing while revving up the engine showing that the timing does advance. If you freeze frame it, you should be able to look at the timing marks and determine what the advance is.

CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO (ignore the rapping noise, that was the timing light resting against the valve cover while I operated the throttle with one hand and the camera with the other)

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Er thanks that seems to be a picture!

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!