Howyadoin guys,

In my beetle I have a 1600tp with single vacuum distributor (AD case from 72ish kombi). I'm trying to get the timing right on the thing with one of those handy 'strobe' light contraptions.
The thing is tho, my pulley only has one timing mark on it and it runs real bad or not at all if I align this mark with the case seam. It runs better with the mark a few cms to the left of the seam but this is very inaccurate.

Question1: Could this mark actually be the TDC mark and not the required 7.5 BTDC?

Question2: When looking at the engine from the top and rear of the car with the deck lid open (for good measure), is cylinder 1 the front right one or the front left. I know its written somewhere underneath but cannot, for the love of pete find it.

Question 3 (for good measure also): is my car actually farked?

Any help is much appreciated. Many cheers!

1. that would be tdc.
see this link for marking 7.5 deg btdc
http://www.geocities.com/aussiebug1970/tune-up.html#timing 

2. number 1 is right hand side, to the FRONT of
car.

3. can't say from here!

If theres no mark You may have to do trail n error by setting the timming to this particular engine.

Try a few different settings to find which is best for this engine. Test the car by driving and making sure it does not PING under load.

Thanks guys,

I found out that the mark was TDC by shoving a pen in the spark plug hole and I think that the correct timing is 5 ATDC so I am going to see what happens when I try this time after I replace my ruined coil and get rid of my MSD box, really dont need it on my car, might put it on my mums car for the rev limiter (trust me, she needs it!).

Cheers

Vdubs are awesome, today I got the timing and carb adjaustment just right, all by ear and at the same time using the following method:
drive, ppping, tweak, drive, ping, tweak, drive!!.

Yay!

thats good to hear... if posible check the fuel air ratio then it will purr