distributor fully advanced but still 16 degress retarded

I just replaced the the distributor on my 91 gs db1, along with spark plugs and wires. The car’s timing to my knowelge was spot on before I changed out the old distributor ( ignitor went bad). so now that ive installed the new one, the car will not get close to stock timing:shrug:. any thoughts would be great, and thx ahead of time. O, the mechanical timing is correct as well, pulled the cover to make sure.

Did you make sure to jump the under dash service connector before checking with the timing light?

Ya, under the dash a lite gray connector. Did that

I know somebody has had this problem before, help a guy out

If I remember correctly on my car there are two or three connectors that all look very similiar. Make sure you are jumping the right one. Pull the kick panel right off and look for multiple connectors. It should be a 2 wire connector with a green and a brown wire.

The car has been jumped correctly, is there anything else that can be done to fix this?

Not really much else causes this. You’re sure the mechanical timing is correct? Is it possible the parts store gave you the wrong distributor?

Mechanical is on, I pulled the valve cover off thinking that was it but nope it wasn’t. Everything lines up. Remind me is there a difference between and auto and a manny §§§§§? Other then that I think it might be the wrong on they sent. This is frustrating to say the least, but thx you and everyone else

Manual and auto distributor should be the same. Does the car run fine? it should be really bogging if it’s at 16 degrees retarted.
Honestly IDK what else is wrong if your mechanical timing is good, and you jumped the service connector.

[QUOTE=wise_old_dragon;2199198]Manual and auto distributor should be the same. Does the car run fine? it should be really bogging if it’s at 16 degrees retarted.
Honestly IDK what else is wrong if your mechanical timing is good, and you jumped the service connector.[/QUOTE]

It runs like shit, no power, really poor gas milage. I understand that they can’t really be installed backwards but could that be the problem, everything else was done correctly

I have heard that some autoparts store’s distributors can fit on 180 degrees off, but I have never seen it and I wouldn’t think the car would run at all.

Have you tried taking the igniter out of the new distributor and putting it into the old one? I assume this can be done; I’ve never had to mess with OBD0 distributor internals. Either way, this will tell you if it really is the distributor or if something else got weird somehow.

What were the conditions leading up to this? Card drives great, X happens, then you do Y which leads you to diagnose and change out the distributor… What were X and Y? Maybe if you talk through it one of us will have an idea or you’ll get a new insight.

Car would drive for a while till the ignitor in the distributor would heat up then the car would just shut down, it was showing a code saying the ignitor was bad. So instead of messing around with it I just got a new distributor. Installed it like I should following all the steps, and still no good. But I think I might swap out the ignitor from the new to the old, thx for that.

Glad I could lead you in a different direction, hopefully it’ll fix it and you can get some kind of monetary compensation for the ‘new’ one.

Sounds like your on the right track. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit that the new distributor is the problem. Aftermarket parts are junk these days.

is there a way you can swap in a known good distributor (borrow a friends?)? if that solves your problem then the distributor you have is bad.

No, I don’t know of anyone that would lend me one. I hope this fixes it, I’m done with this car giving me issues. But thank you guys and your insight. Two heads are better then mine lol

I believe it can be your firing order make sure u put the wires on correctly… And anotherthing could be that your distributor is 180degrees out…some after market distributors can be put in the wrong way as for the oem can only be put in one way…jus pull off the distributor and turn the shaft on the distributor 180 degrees and put it in that wayy…

I know this is an old thread, but was there a solution to this problem? I have a similar problem where my distributor is turned all they way towards the right and my timing is still too advanced at around 20. It should be at around 16. I had an auto mechanic look at it and he said the distributor is bad and my crank pulley may be bad too, since the mechanical timing is correct. This sounds plausible since the crank pulley is my old stock one which was transferred on to my GSR swapped motor.

crank your motor over by hand till you get tdc for timing, then check your timing belt to make sure your mechanical timing is correct and make sure your rotor is pointing towards the correct cylinder. that should tell you if your crank pulley is off and if your distributor is mounted wrong.