When the timing lever is up - fully retarded - what should be the position of the little lever on the lower end that connects to the timer?

Dennis, what year is your car. That dimension is different in the '09-10 cars with the brass two-piece timer. The bend on the timer end of the timer rod goes inward on these cars and outward on the later cars.
This is the most important dimension for the overall performance of your engine. I suggest that you arrive at your setting based on piston position. This critical setting can vary from one make timer to another and wear has to be taken into account.
Here goes: Remove the timer end of the commutator rod and retard the timer lever on the column. Remove #1 plug and hand crank engine with your thumb over the plug hole. When your thumb is blown out, you are in the compression stroke. Look down in the plug hole with a flashlight and note the top of the piston. Slowly crank the engine until the piston has dropped down about 1/8" past TDC. Now turn on your ignition to the BAT position and rotate the timer counter clockwise until you hear the coil buzz. Stop here, turn off the ignition and bend the timer rod at the curved timer end to line up with the timer. Install the rod and cotter pin. Turn back to BAT and move the quadrant lever to confirm your setting. Since you are relating to piston travel, this proceedure works
for both early and late T's.

Lee - Thank you for your answer.

My concern is with the position of the small arm on the end of the spark lever. It does not seem to move in the correct fashion to change the spark advance.

Here are some photos to help you understand my question.

The first shows the position of the lower arm when the lever is in the fully retarded position.



Notice that the arm is at about the 2:00 position when viewed from the front.

The second photo shows the position of the lower arm when the lever is in the fully advanced position.



Note that the arm is now at about 5-6:00.

This is directly below the retarded location and provides the same distance from the timer as the upper position.

Is this arm in the correct position?

My picture is too large to post, but mine is at about 12:00 when fully retarded

Pat - 12:00 or earlier would make sense. Then the rod would be pulling as it was moving to advance.

How do I move the lever?

Aren't those arms pinned on the shaft? Is your's somehow turned around and therefore placing the pin in the incorrect position. I'm about 1700 miles from my model T's right now but I'll be interested in the answer.

August 1911 factory drawing of the part shows the angle of the hole in relation to the lever upper end by a view looking at the end of the long shaft with the lever shown in the vertical position.

Oops - sorry about the size of the drawing - I forgot to scale it down. Oh well - if your birthday is prior to 1944 you probably will appreciate the size I posted

The short answer to your original question is noon (or midnight). Seeing the question, I went out and looked at four vehicles. Two of them happen to have their timer rods off. On all four, the fully retarded position of the little lever is twelve o'clock (or maybe a minute or two after). With the timer rod missing, it will go down to about four, but with it in place the limit of downward travel is three o'clock. As you pointed out, anything past three would be superfluous, as it heads back toward the timer.

John - Thank you that is just what I was looking for.

I appreciate the size DOB 5/10/1943.

Dennis

I would almost guess that at some point the timer itself, the connecting rod, or something else got hung up and when someone forced the lever up it twisted your spark rod.

Pat - I am sure that you must be correct.

The hole in my spark rod is about 90 degrees to the left of the center line instead of 21 degrees to the right.

I checked another rod - one that I chose not to use and it is in a straight line with the upper end.

It looks like i better drill a new hole.
Thank you all for your help.
Dennis