Yeah I was worried about that so I turned it over with a torque wrench instead. I was working on it by myself at that point so I wanted to make sure I was hearing everything. I've got a bore scope and I'm considering pulling the spark plug and looking at the valves to make sure they are closed. Otherwise I'm out of ideas.
Do you have spark at the points if you open and close them manually with a screwdriver? And the points are set to .016?
They should be set at .016, will the dwell meter read correctly even during cranking? I didnt know so I just set them based on the install procedure in the service manual. I'll check them out tomorrow
Did you check your fuse? Only reason I ask is because that happened to me once. I checked things for a full week pulling my hair out. And then some smart ass said, "Hey, check the fuse."
I'm not sure he has enough initial timing to start assuming the distributors not 180* out. The acceptable range is not that wide. Someone needs to be rotating it when cranking.
If you can just keep advancing and advancing ( seing as you have spark ) the Distributor and not make the motor get hard to Crank over then your timing chain is toast!! Also a can of starting ether is very helpful at times like this! Once you get it back running again be sure to do a compression test of all the cylinders and put them someplace safe for future reference, as it can help take hours off a future troubleshooting issue!
Quick update I appreciate everyone's help and suggestions with this. My first child was born July 5th so I've been a little preoccupied this summer . Going back to the Rivi. Here's the current standing Good fuel to carb Good air Nice spark from coil to cap No spark from cap to wires/plugs It's a brand new cap and rotor, but I swapped them anyway and no change. I pulled the distributor to visually check everything, and I noticed that the screw holding the vaccuum advance down, which also has a ground wire attached, was loose. The threads have stripped out of the housing, making it impossible to tighten down. My question now is, do I replace the distributor? Or find a metal self tapping screw and tighten it down? If I wanted to replace the distributor with something stock, does anyone know where ti start looking?
I find it strange that you get a spark from coil to cap, but none from cap to plugs. Are you sure the distributor is turning? There is no problem with using a larger self tapping screw for the vacuum advance. You can easily find another points distributor on Ebay, or www.rockauto.com. It may not have the same advance curve as your current distributor. A 1971 Riviera should have distributor part number 1112077.
Out of morbid curiosity, did you put the eyelet terminal that is crimped to the black wire back when you installed the vacuum advance screw? The screw closest to the vacuum advance can holds the ground wire for the breaker plate If your tell us that it ran fine until you changed the vacuum advance, then you must of left that off.
I did crank it with the cap off to make sure the distributor is spinning, and it is. The screw that would hold that eyelet down is the one that is stripped, so the wire was loose. I'm thinking it obviously didnt have a solid connection.
