brucemoly

I have a 1964 MF-35 Gas Deluxe. I just replaced the plugs, condensor, rotor, and points. In so doing, I fiddled around with the timing a bit by twisting / turning the distributor housing. In so doing I noticed that the sputter the tractor has "always" had at high idle disappeared. But, I have noticed that I can rotate the distributor housing through several degrees with no appreciable difference in how the engine sounds. So, that has raised the question in my mind about tweaking the timing for optimum performance.

Questions:

1. If I want to advance the timing, do I rotate the distributor clockwise or counter clockwise?

2. How do I know when it is optimal?

Thanks for any insights.

Bruce

BigBoyinMS

To advance the distributor timing you rotate the distributor opposite the way the distributor shaft normally turns when the tractor is running.
The best way is to use a timing light and set it to specs but an old fashioned way that I used to set timing on points type distributors was to use a vacuum gauge. Rotate the distributor back and forth till you get the highest vacuum then retard it (turn in the direction of rotation) till vacuum just starts to drop.
Good Luck!