Sticking bob weights?

[dog man]

Hi all.

Recently I discovered that to set timing at 28 degrees at 4,000 rpm I ended up then with 14 degrees initial (all vac disconnected)

Could that be down to sticking bob weights? I've heard of 36 degrees all in being used which is interesting as that would make my initial timing nearer 22 degrees! which would obviously be hugely wrong.

Can I just check also - initial (idle) and full mechanical advance timing cannot be set differently relative to each other without altering the bob weights of the mechanical advance right? Plus Vacuum advance should be all in before mechanical advance yes?

Well, at the moment I have it set at 28 degrees @4,000 rpm which leads to 14 degrees static...and if I connect the vacuum, the total timing jumps into the 40's

Clearly my mechanical advance has either been limited maybe to stop pinking or it's simply stuck/will only travel half way??

Could be the cause of my mystery misfire tho eh?? I'm going to get the distributor off this aft and have a see.

[Ozstyle]

I have a similar static figure of about 14 degrees with timing set at 28 degrees at 4000 rpm. I put this down to the fact that at an idle of about 1000 rpm the mechanical advance will have already begun, I think the rover/haynes manuals state static timing should be done at less than 800 rpm. As for your vac advance giving 40 degrees I assume this is at a steady 4000 rpm sounds about right. If your getting vac advance at idle something wrong as the port to supply vac to distributor does not see vac until throttle butterfly begins to open.
Will be interested to see what you find when you look at your distributor, I remember a thread were someone found their distributor was not giving full mech advance from day one from the factory.