I need a timing light

[BWR1953]

I've been beating my brains in trying to find a suitable timing light for my 2-stroke outboard engines. :grumpy:

I'd ordered one which took over a week to arrive. Got it out of the box and it was defective. Sent it back.

Did more research and ordered a different one from a different vendor for local pickup. It arrived yesterday and when I went to the store, I was informed that the part number had been superceded and they showed me the replacement, which was a lesser version. So I declined.

And here I am. Searching again. After reading a zillion reviews on timing lights ranging in price from 30 bucks all the way up to 175 dollars, the same thing seems to happen. I discover that they're all junk. :blue:

Gone are the days when I'd just go down to the local Sears and buy a Craftsman and get on with my life. Heck, I sold my Craftsman light some 2 decades ago when I stopped working on cars. And I'd owned the thing for 2 decades even then!

Any recommendations?

 

[gm280]

Interesting to hear about ALL the timing lights being defective. What exactly is/was wrong with them. There are so easy to use with a clip on pickup and not much inside of them. So I don't know what could be defective with them... Look at a pawn shop and pick up one for a song. I mean since you don't need one for other needs then to check your engine presently, why buy new. Could even get one from a auto parts store as a loaner for nothing...

 

[southkogs]

I wound up buying an Innova 3551 from the local autoparts store (under $40). I had always stolen Dad's Craftsman, and hadn't needed one in quite a while. I bought it because it was simple and I didn't think I needed anything fancy. It seems durable enough. Worked for what I needed.

 

[BWR1953]

Interesting to hear about ALL the timing lights being defective. What exactly is/was wrong with them. There are so easy to use with a clip on pickup and not much inside of them. So I don't know what could be defective with them... Look at a pawn shop and pick up one for a song. I mean since you don't need one for other needs then to check your engine presently, why buy new. Could even get one from a auto parts store as a loaner for nothing...

What's inside of them nowadays is micro circuit boards which fail. I've spent dozens of hours over the last week reading reviews and even the expensive ones (over $150) will fail in a fairly short time if they don't fail immediately. Many reviews saying the lights are DOA right out of the box. Like the first one I bought. I don't want to buy a light that is going to get little use and then fail 6 months or a year from now when I need to use it again.

I want a light that has a tach built in, because my boat doesn't have room for a tach. And the ones that the local parts stores "loan out" are the same ones that have poor reviews. :noidea:

 

[BWR1953]

I wound up buying an Innova 3551 from the local autoparts store (under $40). I had always stolen Dad's Craftsman, and hadn't needed one in quite a while. I bought it because it was simple and I didn't think I needed anything fancy. It seems durable enough. Worked for what I needed.

The Innova 3551 is the "superceded replacement" that the NAPA dealer ended up showing me and which I refused because of longevity issues. The online reviews also complained about a weak flash that is hard to see in daylight. I'm not working on a car inside a garage. I'm working on outboards which need to be outdoors while running, so the light needs to be clearly visible.

And the majority of the lights that I've read about use LED lights instead of a Xenon bulb and lens. The LEDs just aren't bright enough. The light from the one that I originally bought was barely visible.

 

[BWR1953]

Oh yeah, the manufacturer says that the Innova 3551 isn't suitable for a 2-stroke engine.

Q: Will the 3551 work with a two stroke outboard?
A: Thank you for your inquiry. No it will only work on 4 stroke engine.
By: Innova Electronics Corp. on May 31, 2017

 

[southkogs]

^^^ Oooooh. Never even thought to look at that.

I was using it outside of the garage, during the daylight (afternoon in Tennessee). I had some shadow over me, the way the sun falls at our place (shade too ... it was HOT). But I could see the light fine.

 

[gm280]

Very interesting! How does a timing light know the difference between a 4-cycle engine and a 2-cycle engine if it gets it's pick up via a spark plug wire? I'd never heard of such things... If the trigger fires during a spark at the plug, then it works...period. Every revolution it fires and that allows you to see the timing. ..does it not?

 

[BWR1953]

^^^ Oooooh. Never even thought to look at that.

I was using it outside of the garage, during the daylight (afternoon in Tennessee). I had some shadow over me, the way the sun falls at our place (shade too ... it was HOT). But I could see the light fine.

Good to know that the light was visible.

I can relate to hot here in Florida. It was 97 degrees here yesterday with 90% humidity for much of the day. :flame:

 

[BWR1953]

Very interesting! How does a timing light know the difference between a 4-cycle engine and a 2-cycle engine if it gets it's pick up via a spark plug wire? I'd never heard of such things... If the trigger fires during a spark at the plug, then it works...period. Every revolution it fires and that allows you to see the timing. ..does it not?

I know, right? Very confusing.

One thread that I read was talking about how the light will fire on the "off" side and therefore the timing mark wouldn't be visible. So the light flashes twice as often as it would on a 4 stroke and would be flashing on a blank part of the flywheel. :noidea:

 

[BWR1953]

^^^ Oooooh. Never even thought to look at that.

I was using it outside of the garage, during the daylight (afternoon in Tennessee). I had some shadow over me, the way the sun falls at our place (shade too ... it was HOT). But I could see the light fine.

Question: were you adjusting only idle speed timing? The specs for my engine say to tie the boat securely to a dock and to adjust it at WOT. I can't do that in my backyard.

 

[southkogs]

Yes. Idle only on mine. LOL ... If I put some time into getting my old Johnson 7.5 running I could test the two stroke issue.

Haven't used it on any of the cars yet.

 

[dwco5051]

How many of the old timers on the list remember the neon tube timing lights. I have one from back in the 1950's and it still works. The only problem was you had to use them in an unlit tunnel at midnight. Even in the garage I would have to hang an old blanket down from the hood to darken the engine compartment on my 1940 Chevy to set the timing.

 

[gm280]

How many of the old timers on the list remember the neon tube timing lights. I have one from back in the 1950's and it still works. The only problem was you had to use them in an unlit tunnel at midnight. Even in the garage I would have to hang an old blanket down from the hood to darken the engine compartment on my 1940 Chevy to set the timing.

Yes I've seen them. You had to use them on the dark side of the moon if you really needed to see it. It is merely a serried NE2 (an NE2H would have been better but not sure they were available back then) neon bulb between the spark plug and the spark plug wire. And yes they do work but only in some really dark surroundings. :moon:

 

[BWR1953]

Well guys, I pulled the trigger (nyuk, nyuk layful: ) this morning and ordered a new timing light.

This one is actually a cheaper version of the one that I sent back. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the higher end model. It's only $30, but the description says it works with 2 and 4-stroke engines.

And the reviews for it over the last year and a half are better than the higher priced light. Maybe it'll work awhile. Keeping my fingers crossed.

BTW - it's an Actron CP7527.

 

[BWR1953]

Yes I've seen them. You had to use them on the dark side of the moon if you really needed to see it. It is merely a serried NE2 (an NE2H would have been better but not sure they were available back then) neon bulb between the spark plug and the spark plug wire. And yes they do work but only in some really dark surroundings. :moon:

Yeahhh... that's older than me. :lol:

My first was a Craftsman with a Xenon bulb. Great tool. Kept it about 25 years.

 

[gm280]

Yeahhh... that's older than me. :lol:

My first was a Craftsman with a Xenon bulb. Great tool. Kept it about 25 years.

Actually I still have an inductive pick up Craftsman timing light. And sadly I LOANED it out to a friend many many decades ago, and he managed to break the inductive pick up bar and didn't even offer to pay for the part. BUT I used some glue and .it still works flawlessly, I think, I haven't used a timing light in years, but it worked lots of time after that broken pick up bar repair.

I would look for a inductive timing light at a pawn shop and offer a mere few bucks and regardless what was wrong with it, I'd repair it. Really not much to one...

 

[tbird175]

I will show my age. Years back while a teenager and learning to work on cars my dad taught me how to make a make shift timing light. We took an old spark plug wire and removed the end that attaches to the spark plug leaving the end of the wire exposed. We then attached the other end of the wire to the no. 1 port on the distributor cap. We taped the wire to a wood stick. We cranked the engine and pointed the bare end of the wire using the stick toward the timing pointer on the engine. Every time no. 1 plug port fires the charge will arc from the wire to the counter balancer. By adjusting the distance from the wire to the timing pointer you can get a pretty good indication of the counter balancer timing marks in reference to the pointer.