[troy1974]

Hi I’m at the garage without my manual and have a quickie question - how do I turn the crank to find TDC on an 8V engine from 1985 - it’s my Saab 90 but it’s the same motor they put in the 900’s I believe - I need to remove the valve cover you see and I need TDC so the distributor comes out with the cover - thanks

 

[Jim Mesthene]

Line up the distributor rotor so it's parallel with the plane of the head. I do it with a remote starter...Maybe move it a little with a screwdriver and flywheel teeth.

 

[troy1974]

Thanks I ended up removing the fly wheel cover and rotated it by hand - As long as it’s top dead centre it doesn’t matter if the inner part of the distributor inside the valve cover movers about ? Timing will be ok?

 

[troy1974]

The little wheel thing I mean

 

[troy1974]

Rather than start a new thread I though t I’d continue here / I suspected a fuel pump issue and so I removed it and pump the spring by hand I should see fuel come of the carb end right ? I feel some air when I completely remove the fuel pipes but when attached to the fuel line and I pump by hand nothing is being sucked out - I sucked a little on yen fuel line and gas comes out easy so I assume this pump is screwed. I’ve removed the pump now and just wonder if I could do a test with water and manually pump it ?

 

[spydergear]

To be clear - you have a carb engine with a mechanical fuel pump? If that is the case, you should have fuel in the fuel bowl if it is pumping at all. I don't know what sort of carbs you have - maybe Strombergs or SUs. If so, I don't know how you would look at the fuel level in the bowls. But if they do have accelerator pumps, as in a conventional carburetor, you should see gas being squirted with the engine not running, and the air cleaner off, by actuating the throttle.

My SAAB 99 Manual does not cover carbs, but I have a Chevrolet manual that does cover fuel pump testing. Basically what it says to do is to remove a fuel line going to the carb, attach a hose and see if you can pump some gas into a container. You should get one pint in less than 40 seconds.

If it does this, you can continue testing by hooking up a pressure gauge of some sort at the same point. With the engine running on fuel in the carb bowls, you should get about 2 to 5 pounds of fuel pressure at idle.

Be safe. Don't suck on fuel lines. Have a fire extinguisher at the ready during testing. Don't allow fuel to spill.

I don't know if you have gasoline with added ethanol where you are, but it can be destructive to rubber parts in old cars.

 

[troy1974]

Thanks Spydergear, yes I have the mechanical fuel pump , I remove the pump from its mount , and then removed the outlet pipe that goes to the carb and pumped the unit by hand , the pump made a deep squeaking sound and wasn't easy to compress the spring, no fuel came out of the outlet pipe so I guess its not working. New pump is the equivalent of 30 dollars here in Sweden so its worth buying and testing at this stage. Does anyone know if I have to re do the timing as Ive removed the valve cover - the engine is at top dead centre so I could remove the cover ? thanks