Procedure for setting timing?

I went on a bit of a drive today, about 260 miles round trip, and on the way back I noticed the car was really weak at times. I was down to third gear on some smaller hills. I also noticed that the further I pressed the throttle down, the car seemed like it went slower, yeah don't know how else to explain it. To me, it seemed like the most power came out of the car durning the first 40 percent of throttle travel, any more than that and it got sluggish. I figure I'll go check the timing, but I don't know the exact procedure. Who out there can tell me how to do this? Yeah, and to make matters just a bit worse, I think I burnt up a wheel bearing, I have a nice howling sound coming from somewhere now.

Before you check timing, check your fuel filter. Sounds like you're not getting enough gas to the combustion chambers. To set timing, you will need a timing light. Remove the #1 ignition wire from the spark plug and connect it to your timing light. Hook your timing light up to your battery, and start your car (be advised it may be difficult to get it started, and it may stall out. Do not flood it, but give it some gas to get it started). Do NOT allow the #1 wire to touch anything metallic, or you will get a very nice shock, and may damage your electrical system. The shock is not fatal, but it hurts like hell (I know this from personal experience). Remove the vaccum hoses from your distributor if you have the vaccum advance style distributor, and then plug a spare fuse into the diagnostic connector under the dash. (If you have electronic spark advance, just plug in the diagnostic fuse.) Aim your timing light down at the crankshaft pulley, and pull the trigger. The strobe light will flash whenever the #1 cylinder should fire. As the light flashes onto the crankshaft pulley, you will notice a mark on the pulley that shines each time the light flashes. This is your timing mark. Refer to your under hood Vehicle Emissions Control Information (VECI) label, which will tell you your engine's timing in "degrees before top dead center" (degrees BTDC). Next to your timing mark will be a graph on the timing belt cover. It has lines that go in incriments of two, from 0 to 20. You want your timing mark to flash at the number indicated on your VECI label. You will accomplish this by loosening the two distributor bolts, and rotating the distributor by hand until the correct timing is reached. It's probably easier to have two people; one to rotate and tighten the distributor, and one to point the timing gun. When correct timing is reached, remember to reconnect all hoses and wires, and to remove the diagnostic fuse. You may need to reset your engine's idle speed as well, if the idle drops too low or is too fast.

Yeah, I've shocked myself with spark plug wires before, feels like a kick in the chest, but the pain goes away quickly. I don't have one of those VECI labels, so what should I set my timing to? I think I remember reading on here that timing should be set to 5 degrees BTDC, is that correct? Which cylinder is number 1? Heh, I assume they go 1,2,3 left to right standing in front of the car, but I'm not sure.

Hmm, i just was thinking why remove the #1 plug wire? Does it really make a difference?

You have to have your timing light connected to the #1 spark plug wire. That is how you set timing. Timing is based off of degrees before top dead center on the #1 cylinder. The only way to find this out is to find out when the #1 cylinder fires. You do this by connecting the wire to your timing light. The #1 cylinder is the one all the way to the left when looking at the front of the car.

I figured that with an inductive timing light I wouldn't have to remove a plug wire.

Oh, an inductive timing light does not require the wire be removed. It still has to be clamped to the wire though.