The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-05-31
LESSON NO. 10.
Timing the Distributor syste

Timing the Distributor System.
To time a Distributor System. or
for that matter any ignition system.
the first thing to do is to determine
those things, to find which it is neces-
sary to turn over the engine (revolve
the crank shaft, then the engine must
be set so that the piston of one of the
cylinders is In the position where the
sparks must come, and then the spark
giving or timing instrument is set so
as to give the spark at this moment.
The best practice Is to set cylinder
number In the position for the spark,
as II this cylinder is timed right, the
others will also be timed right. The
steps to take to time a Distributor
System are therefore as follows:
/. Determine the direction in which
the shaft on which the Distributor in
strument Is set, rotates when the en-
CINE is running. This is done by turn
ing the engine over by hand and
watchig this shaft.
2. Find the firing order, as explain
ed IN lesson No. 2.
8. Set the piston of cylinder No. l
at the Top Dead Center between the
compression and power strokes. In
lesson No. the method of doing this
was gone into in detail.
We are now ready to set the spark
giving or timing instrument so as to
give the spark at this time. Let US
see what must happen in order that
we can transform the low voltage cur
rent of our battery into the high volt
age necessary to have the current
jump across the spark-plug points and
thus give the spark? Why the low
voltage or primary current must be
interrupted, or in other words the
interrupter points must just open 1t
would be well for the reader to clearly
understand the above, as the timing OF
any ignition system resolves itself
down to the doing of three things,
namely: setting cylinder number l
ready for the spark, setting the igni-
ton system so that the interrupted
points just begin to open, and con-
meeting the wires to the cylinders so
that the secondary current will be
sent to the spark plugs in the firing
order. When we make the vibrator of
the four unit system just begin to vi
brate, we are really just opening the
interrupter points
The instrument
Figures l, and of the illustration
show the parts of the Distributor Sys-
tenn instrument, Fig. l being the bot
tom portion containing the Interrupt
tor, Fig the distributor which sets
on top of this and which contains the
collector points or segments K, and
Fig the distributor brush which sets
On the shaft F, and, revolving, distrib-
utes the secondary current from the
contact point ] to the segments K
and thus through the wires to the
spark plugs one after the other. If
these wires be connected to the spark
plugs in the firing order the current
will thus go to them in this order.
While there are a number OF ways
for fastening the distributor instru-
ment to the engine driven shaft c, the
majority of them are fastened as
shown in the illustration, that is by
set screw A. OF these there generally
are from two to four. You will notice
that all that Is necessary in order to
take the instrument out of the car
will be to disconnect the rod U and
lnscrew the set screws A when it can
he pulled off of the shaft C.
If you held the drum V in your hand
and revolved the sleeve B you would