Timing lights

Russ

Russ

Club Member
MrG240z and I are looking to buy timing lights.

Neither of us have any real idea what makes a good or bad one, or why one is worth £35 and another £75. I know that I want dial advance on it, can anyone recommend one or what to look for? I guess the more you pay the more accurate they become? I also see lots of Gunson timing lights about, are they any good?

My dad wants to buy one for his motorbikes, and seeing as he's going to pay for it I'd like to get a nice one, can anyone recommend something pretty good please?

Thanks :)
 
Well said Russ :)

Since I'm such a novice and I've never used one before should i stick to a basic model - one that is non adjustable or should I get a more sophisticated one - where you can adjust the advance/retard and have a rev counter on it too?
 
Gunson - cheap and cheerful, easily broken.
Best I've ever used - Snap-On with dial-in digital setting. Select the advance you are looking for and the crank marker simply lines up with zero when correct. Makes it easy to check for "all in" advance. Tacho function would be nice, but if you have a friend they could read the one in the car while operating the throttle for you!
Don't be tempted by a cheap neon (if they still make them) or you'll be doing all your timing work after dark.
 
I have a multimeter that does RPM so I guess I could use that.

Looks like you'll be buying that Snap on one George, and I'll be convincing the old man that we need an expensive on :( Hehe
 
russ I have a sealey timing light that has done many years service. It has the facility to dial in the degrees advance same as the snap on and does just as good a job for a fraction of the price. It is as accurate as a snap on as I have compared it with one.
If for example you bought a snap on timing light then you would have a snap on timing light costing £x
If you bought a sealey timing light then you would have a sealey timing light( that does what it says on the packet) for £x + something else costing £x + something else costing £x untill you reach the £x that the snapon timing light cost.
If you need to wear raybans or other brand labels to be seen outside then perhaps you ought to go for the brand name timing light but if it was me I would get something that did what it said on the packet within my budget.
To me that makes sense both logically and finacialy but then I am but a simpleton.
I'll sit back and wait for the abuse for daring to suggest that snap on are not the best value. cheers ben
 
:S30: having done my aprentiship many years ago and only having snapon tools most of my life i would like to say they were the best, they are deff the most money and very good but a work shop i worked in was broken into and i lost the lot due to some things the insurance company are not happy with iv still not had a pay out like (the company trying to get out of liability for about £10000) so since i needed tools i started to look for cheeper ones and found many as good or very close at better prices there isnt such a big gap between snapon and the rest now look about but my snapon time light was good.

spagit147
260z 2+2
 
:S30: the snapon light in the linck is very old now i wouldnt go for that realy go for the digital one.


spagit147
260z 2+2
 
Thanks for the help guys ;)

Ben if a Sealey is good enough for your engine (http://www.zclub.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2771&sort=1&cat=all&page=1) then it's fine for me :)

Have looked at digital Sealeys and http://www.ccw-tools.co.uk/catalogue/product.asp?affid=zclub&prod_id=3181&cat_id=72 came up through our club tool shop :)

Found the attached image in the catalog as well. I think I'll go for one of these, only want to buy one the once and it seems to be good enough for me.
It basically says the display reads rpm, advance, dwell and voltage.
 

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Ben - please note I was not suggesting that the Snap-On was necessarily "the best", only that it was the best I have had direct experience of. I'm quite happy to accept that there are other equally good cheaper brands - I'm definitely not a label snob (I hope:)).
 
mike that was not the way that my post should have been read. I can assure you that I was merely presenting it that way in order to point out to people that there are options that are good enough to do the job for the home mechanic without spending your rebuild budget on tools. If I have left you feeling that I was having a pop at you then I appologise and again assure you that it was not intended. cheers ben
 
Cheers Ben - I didn't think you were getting at me, just trying to clarify the comment. No offence taken! :santab:
 
TL81 looks a better item for the money. With electronic ignition you won't need dwell readings...
 
snap on are by far the best tools on the planet.sometimes you have to weigh up the cost of buying them and consider how often you may use it,is it for something critical and would a budget one last.I own over £10000 of snap on tools as i use them for work but sometimes i will still buy mac,bergen,draper,k&d,sealey,or britool if i can get away with it.
 
My 240 doesn't have electronic ignition... :p

So what does the dwell do please?

Thanks in advance.
 
russ the dwell angle is a far more accurate way of setting the points gap as it measures each opening of the points and then gives you the avarage to take into account any wear in the dissy spindle or cam lobes(on the dissy).
 
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