Reomendations for a timing light?

[Fifty Six MGA]

Essential features? Brands?

I need to get one, and some 12 foot arms, so I can adjust the timing on my MGA. Any recommendations?

[Steve Simmons]

My preference is for a simple dial-back light. No digital stuff, and no non-adjustable ones. Brand isn't terribly important so long as it's accurate. I have two lights, one adjustable and one non-adjustable that I compare now and then to make sure they read the same. Not much chance of them both going out of calibration and by the same amount. Besides, in my opinion a timing light is more of a reference tool than a precision tool.

You can also make timing marks for the top of the pulley if you don't want to crawl underneath each time.

[Fifty Six MGA]

You can also make timing marks for the top of the pulley if you don't want to crawl underneath each time.

How would you go about doing that? Seems like it's a two person job to adjust the timing right now.

[Jimmy]

The easy way; align the marks at the bottom as usual, then use a marking pen to give you a new reference visible from the top.
You can also make a small cut in the pulley with a hacksaw to make it more permanent, but those "junkyard-style" marking pens leave pretty durable marks.

[Steve Simmons]

There are also kits available with a sticker for the pulley and pointer that attaches to the timing cover, but like Jimmy says you can do it yourself with a marker and a reference point. Just create a mark or reference point somewhere visible from the top, and then line up the pulley with each mark on the bottom, duplicating them on top in line with your own mark.