Freshly Restored
Posts: 214
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2014 10:58 am
Location: Deer Park, Wa.
finding true top dead center
if this is posted somewhere else, sorry for double posting.
so I made a piston stop tool from an old spark plug. its rounded on the tip as to NOT damage the piston. you can buy one just about anywhere. https://www.summitracing.com/search/par ... ston-stops
I had to make a pointer, so I mounted a piece of wire on the frame under the front of the engine and bent it to point at the harmonic balancer.
brought #1 piston up to about TDC.
screwed the tool into the spark plug hole and turned the bolt in the tool into the cylinder till it touched the piston. (if the tool won't touch the piston, back it out and get the piston a little closer to TDC.) lock the nut down.
mark the balancer where the wire is pointing.
SLOWLY rotate the crankshaft BACKWARDS till the piston goes down, then back up to touch the piston. we go slowly so as not damage the piston as it comes back to the tool.
make another mark on the balancer.
REMOVE the tool.
measure the distance of the marks, split it in half and make another mark.
rotate the crankshaft in the direction of rotation till your pointer is lined up with your center mark.
there is TDC the inexpensive way. as you see, the rivet on my flywheel is way off TDC.