20V BT Timing light not flashing...

[shagymc]

Currently trying to sync my Haltech ECU timing to the cars and I'm having issues. I bought a timing light from autozone, I'm sure it's not amazing but I figured it was good enough to do the job. After hooking everything up, I cranked the car and was getting intermittent strobes but not near enough to say I know where my timing is at. I thought maybe the issue was I wasn't getting spark. I unplugged the coil from the distributor and saw consistent sparking from that to ground. I read you can use the coil to get the induction pulse for the light but when cranking, the timing looked like it stepped forward with each flash. This made sense to me because the coil should fire for every spark plug so now I'm not sure what to do.
The battle garage install manual is very specific in stating that until the timing is synced with the ECU that I shouldn't start the car but I feel like the car should be running so I can time it. Help me out!

[jondee86]

Are you working with these instructions (Platinum Sprint 500)?

First, go to the fuel setup page and disable the fuel injectors (at this stage it is not
desired that the engine attempts to start). To reduce stress on the starter motor it is also
advisable to remove the spark plugs to help the engine crank more freely when
setting base timing.
Set lock timing to ON and lock timing angle to 10 degrees. Crank engine, using a
timing light connected to ignition lead for number 1 cylinder. Adjust the tooth offset
and trigger angle until timing reads 10 degrees as viewed with a timing light on
crank pulley. Tooth offset gives large changes to timing, trigger angle is used to fine
tune timing to exactly 10 degrees (any angle can be set as the lock timing angle; in
this example 10 degrees was used).

I guess if you have the plugs out you will need to make sure that the #1 plug is
grounded to some metal part of the head, and clamped down. Then you should get
one flash every second turn of the engine. If you don't see the timing mark on the
crank pulley, adjust the tooth offset until it comes into view somewhere near the
timing scale on the timing belt cover, and fine tune until you get the mark on the
crank pulley lining with the 10 deg mark on the scale.

Unset Lock Timing and move to the next setup item.

Cheers... jondee86

[shagymc]

So Im following the BGRS install guide which is very similar.
-Ive enabled the timing lock and set to 20 degrees.
-Unhooked the fuel injector plugs
-Connected a charger to the battery
-Cranked for timing with a light

What I'm seeing though is the ticks moving forward as the car cranks when it does flash and it doesn't seem to flash consistently. All the videos I've seen the car is running but the guide says I can't start the car until syncing the timing. I got a spark tester today and the spark seems consistent. I'll film some videos tonight and post them up for you.

[shagymc]

So the problem was found to be with the Haltech. BGRS is investigating. I'm going to try and change the filter options tonight and see if that changes something. With the factory ECU, she fired right up and the timing light worked great.

[BoostJunky]

I know its an old post but did you get yours to work while cranking? I wasn't able to see the timing marks on mine while cranking so I ended up setting my timing at idle. BG haltech as well.

[chi-town]

Sounds more like you're looking for the crank index position?

[Nomnom83]

Same issue over here, wondering what the fix was.