1980 Timing Explanation

[802PG]

Hi everyone! I'm brand new to the forum (but not forums in general), and brand new to golf carts!

I recently acquired a 1980 Marathon which had low compression (25 PSI). One of the head bolts had broken which caused the head gasket to completely blow out. Anyway, I replaced the cylinder, piston, gaskets, etc and it seems to run "ok" so far with 135 PSI now (as good as can be expected for having sat for who knows how long and not touching the carb at all). I did not do anything with either the flywheel or clutch or anything else, so timing hasn't changed from what it was before.

Anyway, even though it's running, I really want to know how the timing works on this engine. It seems it's a basic points setup, and searching through the forum I either find people talking about the electronic ignition in 1981+, or the timing which appears to be in the built in starter/generator in the early 78/79 stuff. I haven't found much in the way of the points on the 1980.

My question specifically is, how does the timing get triggered? I assume there is a lobe on the crank which breaks the points, but that could only work for one direction. Are there actually TWO lobes on the crank that break the points? I honestly didn't look that close, but I can only imagine one is BTDC and one ATDC so you actually get two sparks while it's running. Then, it just runs whichever direction sparks BTDC because that's the way the starter spins it?

That said, how do you adjust the points? I noticed there are marks on the flywheel for forward and reverse, and a mark on the engine case. I'm assuming you line up the marks, then somehow adjust the point gap at that location? What is the gap supposed to be?

Thanks in advance everyone!

[Labbinski]

One set of points one cam lobe the timing mark is for top dead center then the breaker plate is adjusted for advance or retard the point gap is for new .015 for used is .013 you set your points to the air gap on top of cam lobe