MTFCA Forum

Hi Bought a 22 with new engine never has been fired. I have #1 just pass TDC piston is about 1/8 down on combustion stroke. Roller pointing at # 4 not # 1 I know on a distributor type engine if a little off move the plug wires. What could be causing this? Any information will be helpful

Thanks Mike

Some camshafts have the hole for the timer roller indexing pin drilled all the way through, remove the timer roller assembly and see if there is another hole 180 degrees opposite the one that the pin is currently installed in.

You may have a camshaft with the hole which receives the roller index pin bored clean through. If so, simply remove the pin, and position the roller correctly.

Rotate the engine until the number 1 piston is again to the top and then see where the roller is.

Thanks pulled pin put it in other side. Perfect. Now to get it running


Thanks Mike

Cams were made this way for a while around 1915. With the hole drilled all the way thru. No idea why.

Speculation. Somebody probably figured they could save two seconds per camshaft by not indexing the hole depth and going straight through. Then, someone else realized it was costing them five seconds to verify the roller was on the correct side during assembly.

This happened with the very first model T I ever owned. It was simply a chassis and a tractor seat but everything was there to have a moving vehicle. My brother and I decided we could get it running and we didn’t actually know how to start or drive a T. We hooked up a small lawn mover gas tank to the fire wall to bypass the rusty gas tank and wired a 6 volt flashlight battery to the switch. After turning a few times all we seemed to get is a few coughs.

Then my older brother suggested we check which plug was firing when and we discovered that it was 180 degrees off. So we removed the timer cover and set the rolled on the opposite side of the cam shaft. One crank later and the engine roared to life. We didn’t know how to drive the damned thing and so the rest of the day we experimented with driving and eventually figured it out. We drove it for a few days until we wore out the battery. Took us a few more weeks to realize that all we needed to do was to switch to magneto. At that point we also discovered that the magnets were strong enough to start the engine.