4/7/00
Glenn,
My thought is that you should be 100% sure of the basics before you
worry about an expensive new starter or coasting down a hill you may not
even have available. Please excuse me if I am insulting your intelligence
but, since this is your first rebuild, you may not heve gone this procedure
often.
How certain are you of the folowing? Timing marks correctly
aligned on timing sprockets when building engine; valves actually moving
(maybe hydraulic lifters are not full of oil?); Top dead center # 1
cylinder accurately located when installing distributor; correct timing
mark location on front cover for the particular harmonic balancer used;
point gap set reasonably close to correctly; correct cylinder numbering
system in mind (Left [driver's] side, 1 3 5 7, and right side, 2 4 6 8,
front to back); correct firing order observed when attaching plug wires (1
8 4 3 6 5 7 2); correct direction of distributor shaft known (clockwise);
correct method of determining which distributor cap hole to place # 1 plug
wire into; and so on. Any error with any of any of these could foil your
efforts at this time. My experience has been that, even when you think
everything is right, mistakes are still possible. Check it again.
Remember your ignition timing reference point is always #1 cylinder
at Top Dead Center on the Compression stroke. Once you are sure the engine
is in that position, and have installed the distributor, just place the
wire from #1 spark plug into whichever distributor cap hole the rotor is
pointing at. Then connect the rest clockwise around the cap according to
the correct firing order. Misconnected plug wires can even contribute to
slow cranking. Hope this may be of some help.
Cheers,
Dave K.
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>Well, today was supposed to be the day to hear the engine run, but I seem to
>be having a few problems. I wish someone on the list was a little closer, as
>I don't think anything is seriously wrong, but it won't start. It doesn't
>spit, sputter, nothing. It is getting gas as occasionally it will shoot gas
>back out the carb. Its probably something one of you could figure out after
>looking at it for 5 minutes.
>
>Here's what I have. Olds Block, Buicks heads, New Cam, Edelbrock carb, RV8
>exhausts, rebuilt starter, new coil, rebuilt distrbitor, new points,
>condensor etc. This is my first ever attempt at rebuilding an engine.
>
>How fast should the starter roll the engine over? It seems like it is going
>very slow. I'm only getting spark on #1 about once a second. This just seems
>really slow to me. I've tried the obvious stuff, running jumper cables
>straight to starter solenoid from my truck's battery, to make sure it isn't a
>battery or battery lead problem.
>
>My gut feeling tells me it is an ignition / timing problem. I've got 12
>volts on the + side of coil. I started tying to use the Pextronics EI unit,
>but couldn't get any spark, a bad unit, maybe? So I switched back to the
>points that came with the rebuilt distributor. Points are a new thing to me,
>I've always run with the EI units. When timing light is attached, I seem to
>be getting spark at the right time.
>
>Newby question, how can I tell if I have the distributor in correctly, I
>realize that it cane be 180 degrees off. I've followed the factory manual,
>remove valve cover check to make sure both valves on #1 are closed. But it
>seems to me like they are closed on both positions, 0 and 180. Am I missing
>something?
>
>Any words of wisdom? as I'd really like to hear this thing run.
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Glenn
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