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Old August 5th, 2018, 07:46 AM
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Timing light

Hi guys,

I am shopping around for a timing light. In the search have come across a bunch of situations where some say they work with 2 and 4 cylinder engines. I am not sure if this is because some won't work on smaller engines, or if they mean they will ONLY work with those engine sizes. There are also issues with some saying they don't work on certain ignition system types. The one I am thinking about below doesn't list any of that information, but I don't want to assume it will work on a 1971 Cutlass with a 350ci.

https://innova.com/en-US/Product/Detail/3568

Anyone have any experience with these?

Thanks!
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Old August 5th, 2018, 08:09 AM
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That would work fine.
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Old August 5th, 2018, 08:12 AM
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That one has more features than my Craftsman silver bullet.
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Old August 5th, 2018, 08:13 AM
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That will work, I have one and after a very short amount of use the light has an irregular pattern. I went back to my craftsman dial back. I just us it for the tach function now.
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Old August 5th, 2018, 08:51 AM
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Ok, I guess for the price I will give it a shot and hope to get more use out of it than woodie582 did. It overall seems to have great reviews, my main concern is that is will work with the car.

Woodie582 - did this happen under any kind of warranty period? Just wondering if Innova stands behind their stuff and was willing to replace it or work with you to any degree on this. If it was only used a few times and then stopped working properly I hope they wanted to make that right....
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Old August 5th, 2018, 09:03 AM
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I bought it on amazon, never followed up on the return. As I recall there were negative amazon reviews.
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Old August 5th, 2018, 10:32 AM
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I have the same or similar one had about 1 year works good I like it
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Old August 5th, 2018, 11:06 AM
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I would also check Ebay, or Craigs list for used ones. Now days hardly anyone uses them. You may be able to pick up a real nice used one, that someone may have hardly used,
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Old August 8th, 2018, 02:09 AM
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I have exactly that one, works perfect.
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Old August 29th, 2018, 08:52 AM
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Originally Posted by 71OldsCut
Ok, I guess for the price I will give it a shot and hope to get more use out of it than woodie582 did. It overall seems to have great reviews, my main concern is that is will work with the car.

Woodie582 - did this happen under any kind of warranty period? Just wondering if Innova stands behind their stuff and was willing to replace it or work with you to any degree on this. If it was only used a few times and then stopped working properly I hope they wanted to make that right....
wonder no more innova does not stand behind their products.

i used mine last week and it stopped working then started working w an irregular pattern like woodies.

i called innova support today. my light is 1 yr 2 months from purchase innova would do nothing except offer me a $70 plus ship repair fee but it cost $80 for a new light ?

the CSR at innova was nice but I could not get anything more than eh thats all we can do. I original held off on my review on Amazon as there were several other negative reviews w similar complaints, well I reviewed today, 1 star. I told the CSR I would be posting my experience on classic car forums ( I would assume the target market for these types of lights) and he was indifferent.

if you must buy an innova product get the square trade warranty....youll need it
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Old August 29th, 2018, 09:14 AM
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Well that is fantastic news, lol. I already have mine. I guess I will hope that it holds out longer than a year. It seems like nothing is built to last anymore. I realize a dwell meter is a lot more simplistic than a digital timing light, but I just picked one of those up locally and it must be 50+ years old. Still works fine though. My friends dad is a mechanical and has a garage full of tools like that handed down to him that still work too.

Oh well, thanks for the heads up. If Innova won't stand behind their stuff, negative reviews and getting the word out is probably the only thing to do. I will certainly do the same if mine doesn't last very long.
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Old August 29th, 2018, 12:45 PM
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Originally Posted by RetroRanger


wonder no more innova does not stand behind their products.

i used mine last week and it stopped working then started working w an irregular pattern like woodies.

i called innova support today. my light is 1 yr 2 months from purchase innova would do nothing except offer me a $70 plus ship repair fee but it cost $80 for a new light ?

the CSR at innova was nice but I could not get anything more than eh thats all we can do. I original held off on my review on Amazon as there were several other negative reviews w similar complaints, well I reviewed today, 1 star. I told the CSR I would be posting my experience on classic car forums ( I would assume the target market for these types of lights) and he was indifferent.

if you must buy an innova product get the square trade warranty....youll need it
I would open it up and see if I could figure out what's broken - could be something as simple as a loose contact, broken wire, etc. You have nothing to lose.
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Old August 29th, 2018, 01:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Fun71
I would open it up and see if I could figure out what's broken - could be something as simple as a loose contact, broken wire, etc. You have nothing to lose.

I brought it to work w me tonite in case i get any down time
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Old August 29th, 2018, 03:52 PM
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yeah nothing i opened it up and used a stereo scope for optical inspection, no obvious cold solder joints or EOS (magic smoke release points).

I gave it an x-ray inspection but again no obvious fused open bondwires on the ICs and connecting wires were intact and not broken.

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Old August 29th, 2018, 04:49 PM
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What x-ray system do y'all have? I'm curious as here we have two systems - one is a Dage 2D and the other is an YXLON 3D CT. They come in very handy, don't they?
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Old August 29th, 2018, 04:58 PM
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the new one (less than a year old) Dage quadra 7

the old one an XTEC that is +15yrs old

No one uses the xtec since we commissioned the Dage

I put all kinds of things in there very helpful
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Old October 1st, 2018, 05:49 PM
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https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-w-manual.html

to complete my timing light journey i arrived back to nearly my starting point click the link above
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Old October 2nd, 2018, 10:41 AM
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It's not shown how the spark signal is picked up. If it's from the #1 plug lead then it will work no matter how many cylinders the car has. Each cylinder get a spark once every two revolutions of the engine (or once every revolution if it's a 2 stroke).

Roger.
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