diesel lumy timing light adapter

[pybyr]

Last night I saw a batch of an item on Ebay called a Fox Valley diesel timing adapter-- consists of a lumy probe to go in the injector bore, which then creates a signal through a looped wire to trigger an ordinary timing light that was built for gasoline/ spark applications.

While not absolutely cheap, it's in a price range I could think of getting, which does not seem to be the case with full-spec diesel timing equipment.

Is a unit like that use-able to really set the timing to specs on my 89 7.3? I can't find any shops around here who want to work on an engine this old, and I would like to set my timing to specs in order to try to maximize MPG.

Thanks, and if these are great units, please don't all scarf them before I get home to order one tonight [ebay from work is probably not a good idea].

Thanks!

 

[SparkandFire]

I think rather than messing around with the lumy probe, get a Ferret adapter.

Same concept, connects to a conventional advance type timing light, but you don't have to mess with the glowplugs... Just clamp on a fuel line and good to go!


http://www.ferretinstruments.com/Ferret/765/765.html

And a pdf manual on the subject - http://www.ferretinstruments.com/Ferret/765/E765-01G.pdf


And, btw - The reason they don't want to "mess around" with your "old" truck is 'cause they can't rip you off as much by saying things like "oh, gee, in order to fix this your going to need to pay us $120 an hour to diagnose the problem, then change out a $500 sensor that requires like 4 hours of labor" Chances are, if your driving old iron, they already know they can't squeeze you like that...

 

[Silver91Hatch]

I think rather than messing around with the lumy probe, get a Ferret adapter.

Same concept, connects to a conventional advance type timing light, but you don't have to mess with the glowplugs... Just clamp on a fuel line and good to go!


http://www.ferretinstruments.com/Ferret/765/765.html

And a pdf manual on the subject - http://www.ferretinstruments.com/Ferret/765/E765-01G.pdf


And, btw - The reason they don't want to "mess around" with your "old" truck is 'cause they can't rip you off as much by saying things like "oh, gee, in order to fix this your going to need to pay us $120 an hour to diagnose the problem, then change out a $500 sensor that requires like 4 hours of labor" Chances are, if your driving old iron, they already know they can't squeeze you like that...

Man people have a bad idea about shops. I work for a dealership and I am told daily that my time is not valuable, any idiot can do my job, etc. But somehow customers keep coming back... Humm.

To the OP, Maybe the other shops don't have the tools to work on your vehicle because a tech left a while back and "forgot" to take those tools out of his toolbox or they are just plain broken from years and years of use. Trust me we don't have IDI's busting the doors down to get timed, so I don't have a timing light. See how that works? You go where the money is.

On that note I am interested in purchasing my own personal timing light for IDI's. I have a pop tested and some other misc tools, but lacking a timing light. What is the best way to go about that?

 

[Diesel JD]

I have a Fox Valley Adapter but it is not a standalone unit that can be used with a timing light only. There may be ways to make it work, but the directions require you to dial in a 20* Offset to get to TDC and I don't know how to do that or if it's even possible with only a timing light. The ferret SparkandFire referenced is a much simpler unit which does pulse timing instead of luminosity and where you simply dial in your degrees of advance and match the flashing of your strobe to the 0 mark on the crankshaft damper without the need to enter an offset, so a few folks here have and really like the ferret units. The Fox Valley unit looks very nice but it probably needs a timing meter such as the SnapOn Mt480 or 1480 with a gas engine spark inductive pickup to be used as intended. Maybe Fox Valley made a timing unit that also worked with this lumy adapter. Anyone here on OB is welcome to my Fox Valley unit for pretty cheap if they want to try to figure out a way to use it or have a meter that will hook up to it. I haven't aggressively tried to sell it because I don't want to be misrepresenting it as a functional standalone unit and rather not just give it away either.

 

[SparkandFire]

Man people have a bad idea about shops. I work for a dealership and I am told daily that my time is not valuable, any idiot can do my job, etc. But somehow customers keep coming back... Humm.

I have no problem whatsoever with you making an honest living, I am speaking my opinion, from personal experience. Before I starting buying vehicles I could repair myself I spent many thousands of dollars on repair shops for things I didn't know anything about... I worked for two years at a tire/repair shop and personally watched the salespeople talk customer after customer into repairs I KNEW were not needed. This shop I worked at was in a town with a high number of retired people living on fixed incomes. The salespeople were commissioned and made nice fat checks off them...

It's not YOUR paycheck I am speaking out against, I am sure you are a skilled tech and do a great job, it's the system in place that I don't believe in... Profits no matter the cost.

Just my two cents- Which we are all entitled to.