That moment my timing light died halfway through a diagnosis

I was in the middle of checking timing on a 2005 F-150 at my shop in Cleveland last Tuesday. The customer had been complaining about pinging under load and I figured I'd nail it down quick. Right as I got the light lined up on the harmonic balancer, the pickup clamp gave out and the light just stopped working. No spare in my box, no advance notice. Had to eyeball the timing by ear and feel, then order a replacement for 40 bucks online. Has anyone else had a critical tool fail at the worst possible moment and had to work around it?

2 comments

2 Comments

troyp372d ago

Man, that sucks. Reminds me of the time my multimeter batteries died right as I was testing a parasitic draw on a Subaru. Had to borrow my buddy's old analog meter that he kept in his trunk for "emergencies," which was way too slow for that kind of work. That eyeball timing trick can actually work okay if you know the engine well, but it's not something you want to rely on. Did the customer's ping go away after you got the new light in, or did it turn out to be something else in the end?

evannelson2d ago

Buddy of mine back in Phoenix was rebuilding a carb on a '72 Cutlass, had it all dialed in with a vacuum gauge and a unisyn. Right when he went to do the final idle mixture adjustment, the little ball in the Unisyn just stuck at the bottom and wouldn't budge. He spent the next hour trying to unstick it with carb cleaner and a paperclip before just giving up and tuning it by the seat of his pants. Car ran fine in the end but man that thing sat on his bench mocking him for a week.