Alright everyone, I replaced my head gasket (actually bought a rebuilt head) and now I am trying to adjust the timing. Going by my trusty Haynes manual, I am getting conflicting information. As the subject says, I have a 86 Civic GL 1.5L MT CARB. The book says to disconnect the timing advance vacuum lines that lead to the dist. and plug them, then using a timing light adjust the dist. untill the timing mark lines up with the mark on the timing belt cover. The pooblem is, I have turned the dist. all the way back and I am still about 1/4" away from my timing mark.. Why would this be? I have other manuals about Civics in general, and they say to leave the vacuum advance hoses hooked up.. ?? Does anyone know the correct procedure for timing this car?

you're probably off a tooth on the cam pully

you're probably off a tooth on the cam pully


I agree, I just went through this over the weekend when I replaced my cylinder head and gasket. The easy way to check this is to line up the TDC mark on the pulley with the pointer on the timing belt cover, then check to make sure the marks on the cam gear are even with the top of the cylinder head. The TDC mark on the pulley is seperated from the other marks by a few inches and should be marked with a dot of white paint. The cam gear may also have 2 orange dots on the inside that will help you keep it aligned (the dots on my cam gear were barely noticeable).

the way i check for the tdc of the block (when i have forgotten to do so before putting the head back on) is to stick a piece of wire down the no.1 spark plug hole and rotate the crank till i feel the piston at the peak of it's travel, it make take a bit of rotating back and forth till you get it right at tdc but be sure you're there because a little bit out will mean you are a tooth off again

I've checked and I am sure I have the cam/timing belt timed correctly. I double check after reading the replies and rotated the engine crack untill I had the timing cover notch lined up directly with the TDC mark on the crack pulley, then with the valve cover and upper timing cover off, I used a straight edge and looked to see if the marks on the outside of the cam pulley lined up with the head itself (where the valve cover gasket seals). It couldn't be more correct. Like I said in the original post, I am getting conflicting information from the 2 books I have (Haynes and Chilton). One says to leave the vacuum advance hoses attached to the dist. and the other says to disconnect them and plug them. Which is it??
I also have another problem I would like to ask you guys about, but i'll start a new thread because its unrelated..

Go with whatever the Haynes manual says! I have found many errors with Chilton's manuals in the past, but Haynes always seems correct.

I just wanted to say thank you for the soulution to this problem.My CRX timing was off about an inch or so. Messing with distributor only set the timing back more. Sure enough like mentioned the cam sprocket was off by a tooth.This has been helpfull because my CRX failed emissions testing numerous times. Being 1 tooth off the CO% was 8.04 and the limit was 1.50. After fixing the timing problem the CO% was 0.11.The HC levels also dropped. All in all the car finally passed emissions.This forum has been a great deal of help. Thanks again.
Also if you have ever wondered what CRX stands for ........Civic Renaissance type X.

One says to leave the vacuum advance hoses attached to the dist. and the other says to disconnect them and plug them. Which is it??

The official Honda workshop manuals (http://www.honda.co.uk/owner/WorkshopManualCivic84-87/62sb200/26-17.pdf) don't say to disconnect the vacuum advance hoses. So leave em' on.