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Is it possible to retime the MX3?

I have a 93 spec and I have no power/accelleration in 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear.

I heard you can turn the distributor but another person told me I have to take the timing belt off and retime it that way.

Whos right?

you can advance or retard your timing by hooking up a timing light to one of your spark plug wires. then loosen the 2 bolts holding on your distributer. slowly turn the distributer clockwise to advance your timing. but if you do advance your timing then you should use no less the 91 octain fuel.

You need to jump TEN and GND in the diagnostic box before you make a change to your ignition timing by moving the distributor.

Tunes67

zoom_zoom94mx3 wrote:you can advance or retard your timing by hooking up a timing light to one of your spark plug wires. then loosen the 2 bolts holding on your distributer. slowly turn the distributer clockwise to advance your timing. but if you do advance your timing then you should use no less the 91 octain fuel.

Ok...I heard the part about the timing light and moving the distributor.
So the other guy was just trying to get money from me.

I just want to "adjust" the timing.

I can drive the first 2 gears fine, but I cant accellerate much at all in the higher gears.

I was told that my timing could be off and thats not letting me get any power when I need it.

I hate driving on the highway trying to pass someone.

Timing wont "Go off" by itself.. adjusting it isnt going to help. Likely your timing belt has jumped one or more teeth. The only way to make this right would be to reset the cam gear and crank gear. Might need to replace the timing belt tensioner as well. Its also possible that the timing belt itself has stretched. If this is the case.. or if the tensioner is weak.. the problem will only get worse.

Tunes67

lol, either that or you are just not use to driving a car with 105hp. jk

i had the same prob with mine 1 and 2 worked great 3-5 sucked and hills killed me after looking around under my hood i found that my timing belt slipped or the dunm a@@ that worked on it setup up wrong i re timed and now run the nuts... i would take the covers off and just look at the timeing , if thats not right then turning the disb will not work anyway

tazman734 wrote:i had the same prob with mine 1 and 2 worked great 3-5 sucked and hills killed me after looking around under my hood i found that my timing belt slipped or the dunm a@@ that worked on it setup up wrong i re timed and now run the nuts... i would take the covers off and just look at the timeing , if thats not right then turning the disb will not work anyway

We are in the same boat.
How did you get it retimed?

Easy as pie thats how. Its around here somewhere.

Aha!. If you have a SOHC:

Set the crank pulley to TDC. Loosen tensioner and remove timing belt from the cam. Now align the timing marks on the cam(one arrow on the cam pointing up and one on the back plate pointing down. Slide the belt back on and tighten the tensioner. Use a timing light to make further adjustments.

A DOHC would be similar but now you'll have two cams to align. Not all that hard.