Timing 1920 L-Head

[Guest 1920Touring]

My wife inherited a 1920 Touring that her grandfather restored in the 1970's. It has always started easily and puts along great for Sunday rides. Over the last several years I have been doing the maintenance. Relined brakes, fuel pump (12 volt), condenser, radiator repair and water pump packing.

I recently repacked the water pump. I removed the pump and shaft from the engine. I am finding that I should have left it in place because upon reassembly I messed up the timing.

The water pump/distributor gear has marks on the teeth and the cam gear has a mark on a tooth. It appears the cam gear turns once for 2 turns of the water pump/dist gear. I neglected to mark the the pump/dist gear when I removed it. So. . .when I reassembled I judged what I 'though' was correct and of course it would not start. I lined up the marks on the gears, turn the dist shaft 180 deg at a time until it started and ran.

Took it out and it was noticeably lacking in power. I removed the gear and ended up turning it 3 teeth clockwise while facing the engine. The seemed to be the position the engine started best. In the process I damaged the brass bushing on the gear cover. I lost several thousandths of a inch of material so the pump shaft now has front to back movement.

Ran it in the 4th of July parade and it seemed okay, clutch got a little hot.

Cold starts now are very difficult. I retard the spark as always but it coughs and misses and has a very strong exhaust odor, doesn't smell right. Adjusting the timing from the column does not seem to change the way the engine runs when warm, other than it misses when fully advanced.

I want to start from scratch and time the engine properly.

Does anyone have a link or something that will provide me with the step-by-step process for timing this engine? Also looking for a source to replace the brass bushing damaged. I searched the forum and there were a couple of posts talking about a timing procedure that was written up but I have been unable to find it.

Thank you in advance.