The shop manual for my 1994 Mercury 225-HP two-stroke refers to using a dial indicator to bring cylinder #1 to top dead center (TDC) as part of timing adjustments.
Mercury apparently sells a dial indicator for this purpose, but I have a number of them around my shop at home, and would just as soon find a way to use one of them. It looks from the line drawing in the Merc shop manual that the dial indicator may be attached to a fitting that screws into the spark plug hole. Is that a commonly used adapter? I do have a magnetic base for my dial indicators, which I could use if I could find an appropriate spot on the cylinder head to set it on. Are there any other alternatives -- perhaps a cheaper source for a screw-in adapter than the indicator set sold by Mercury? I'm sure this must be a measurement commonly done on other makes of engines.
One mechanic told me that, in a pinch, you can stick a screwdriver in the spark plug hole to get a pretty good fix on TDC, but being a metrology geek I'd just as soon use a dial indicator.
Mercury apparently sells a dial indicator for this purpose, but I have a number of them around my shop at home, and would just as soon find a way to use one of them. It looks from the line drawing in the Merc shop manual that the dial indicator may be attached to a fitting that screws into the spark plug hole. Is that a commonly used adapter? I do have a magnetic base for my dial indicators, which I could use if I could find an appropriate spot on the cylinder head to set it on. Are there any other alternatives -- perhaps a cheaper source for a screw-in adapter than the indicator set sold by Mercury? I'm sure this must be a measurement commonly done on other makes of engines.
One mechanic told me that, in a pinch, you can stick a screwdriver in the spark plug hole to get a pretty good fix on TDC, but being a metrology geek I'd just as soon use a dial indicator.
