$2 degree wheel

[dbeardslee]

A degree wheel is one of those tools you rarely need, but when you need it, you need it. Today I needed one, and not being one to drop $50 on a little metal disc I may not use again for a long time I got creative. I found an image of a degree wheel, printed it on paper, and rubber cemented it to a piece of cardboard. The cool thing about doing it this way is you can make the wheel virtually any size you want. On the bike I was working on I couldn't use a 7" wheel as the engine guards were in the way. I just sized it down when printing, and made one the perfect size for the application. I bolted it to the motor over the top of the timing plate with some washers to take up the slack, and I bolted a piece of coat hanger to the motor, and used that for my pointer. Total expenditure was $2 for a bottle of rubber cement. Here's a link to the degree wheel graphic, and here's a pic of the installed wheel -

[DGXSER]

Nice job Doug. Very creative.

[DiverRay]

Thanks for the link!! I will need a degree wheel in about three months as I start to put the '78 engine back together. (Sooner if I get more money AND time...)

[tarzan]

Awesome Doug,
What size did you make it? 4"?

[dbeardslee]

Tarzan - I sized the image at 70% when I printed it, which gave me a wheel 5" in diameter.

[dbeardslee]

A note on pointer alignment

One other little note on installing this setup. I found it very difficult to get the degree wheel properly aligned as it's going to want to turn a little when you tighten the bolt. I found that it was easiest to just get the degree wheel close, and then set the crank to TDC and then bend the coat hanger until it was pointed at the right spot. I got the coat hanger within 1 or 2mm's of the degree wheel, and I was careful to get the 'pointer' part of the coat hanger parallel with the hash marks on the wheel to get as accurate a measurement as possible.

[dbeardslee]

Here's a good shot of the whole setup

[TADracer]

Good Job!

I have used the cardboard wheel like yours before and it works great for a one-time or very intermittent use. But since I have to check things out every year I opted to buy one from Motion Pro that would be durable.

I mount mine exactly like you have mounted yours. A couple of large fender washers and a through bolt. After I find TDC with a piston stop, I move the pointer to zero, not try and rotate the wheel like some say to do.

Once you do this a couple of times it gets really simple and easy to set up again. I even use my degree wheel to set ignition timing. Its much more accurate and easier to see than the marks on the timing wheel. The factory timing wheel on my bike is only there to hold the advance parts on and for a quick reference mark.

[dbeardslee]

I used this setup to check the timing on steppenwolf's 80SG, and I have to say I too like it a lot better than the stock timing wheel. I could see exactly what was happening rather than a close approximation. I checked the advance with it also, and my little cardboard disk spun at 5k rpms very nicely. It took me all of about 10 minutes to make the thing, and I saved the image to my computer so when it wears out I'll just print a new one. I'm with you, brother - from now on that's the only way I'm going to check timing .

[crazy steve]

I love this sort of lo-buck solution....

If you use a piece of sheel metal instead of cardboard, then it'll be much more durable and you just replace the printed part when it gets dirty.

'78E original owner