Timing light with Tach. Can I use it?

[Idually]

Hey guys. I posted a while ago about the high idle on my truck. Now that I know how to bring the idle down, I need to know where to set it. I don't have a tach(I know... Bad Andy!) but my timing light has a built in tach. Do you suppose I could use it to set the idle speed on my truck? Obviously I can't use it like a gas engine. If I can use it, can some one tell me were it needs to be hooked to the alternator?



If I'm way out of line, let me know.



Andrew

 

[boatpuller]

A timing light that works off of an ignition system won't work, I have heard they make some that are trigered by the pulses in the injector lines but I've not seen one.



Caleb

 

[Paychk]

Timing light for diesels.



http://www.tinytach.com/techtime.html

 

[lil red cummins]

certain timing lights had a magnetic pickup sensor that plugged in a socket by the damper pulley. there was a magnet imbedded in the damper. if you have one of those, you might be able to temporarily tape a small magnet to the damper and try to hold the sensor rod near it. ????



the only other thing i can think of is to use an optical tachometer that reflects off a marker tape on the crank damper. these things arent cheap. they run around $200. w. w. grainger has them and other places too.



jim

 

[BushWakr - RIP]

There is another option... .

I think it is/may be a snap-on tool.

It uses a small clamp with a piezoelectric sensor. This gets clamped around the #1 fuel line. The output is fed to a timing light and it functions exactly like a normal gas engine timing light.

You need to establish TDC and you need to make a marker needle from wire. This is usually attached to the pan bolts at the front of the pan, with the wire pointer extending over the harmonic dampner.



PB...

 

[Idually]

Thanks. Pretty much as I suspected. I will start guages in the next few weeks.



Andrew