I just came inside from troubleshooting. DAMN its cold here in VA!!! I bumped the motor around by hand until I felt air escaping the number one spark plug hole and I verified it was TDC. I then took the MSD cap off to have a look and it was lined up with number one. I also double checked and I am still getting spark. I even swapped out ignition coils from my 67 lincoln and it was still the same no-start situation. So, does seeing that the distributor and pistons are still in time tell me that the cam is in time also? Or do I still need to pull my timing cover to see that the chain hasnt slipped and is causing my engine to not fire..?
all right ... if the pointer is lined up with no 1 the engine has not jumped time....and you say you are getting spark at the end of the ign wire that connects to the spark plug.... what kind of spark plugs????? I use and reccomend autolite #85s.... gapped to .035.... if all that checks out then take the air cleaner off the carb and operate the throttle and look down in the carb to see if you are getting 2 streams of gas into the front barrels... if not,,, then you have a fuel supply problem....and need to start back at the tank and come forward making sure every thing in between it up to snuff and working....
Ok, so it hasnt jumped time is what your saying? Sweet, I was dreading taking my radiator and balancer and everything else off. I am definitely getting fuel into the carb, it has two nice streams of gas when given throttle. Also, I am using the Autolite 85s with .035 gap. I just do not understand why it wont start. This is rather stressful and confusing...
ALSO, check the damper for the mark at O degrees while the piston is at TDC compression. Those dampers can slip off the mark and even go on around the hub when the rubber fails to hold. This will assure correct ign timing from the crank vs timming mark.
Here's a flow chart published by GM that they use in determining where the problems lies. http://www.teambuick.com/reference/diagnosis/hard_starting_cranks.html There are a couple of others as well. To find them all, go to the Team Buick site and click on references on their tool bar. Click on "diagnosis" at the bottom of the column left of the year table. You'll find links to other diagnosis charts. Ed
Hmmmm.... your telling me that you are getting fuel to the accellerator pump and it is shooting gas into the primaries and you have spark to the plug and the engine is in time close enough to run, but it is not starting up.....?????? if you have gas, spark and timing ... it should start.... have you or someone else crossed the spark plug wires up leaving no 1 in the proper place....??? and are you sure that what is shooting out of the accellerator pump is gasoline????
I am as baffled as you guys are! Hahaa, at this point, I think I am going to have to save up and buy one of Tom Telescos starters for my 401 with dynaflow trans. The starter is spinning pretty slow, but fast enough where it SHOULD START! I just dont know. The starter is a big peice of :dollar:, but what the hell do I have left to do? The motor IS in time according to the no1 cylinder being at tdc and the msd rotor being at no1 as well, plugs are gapped and getting spark, shes getting fuel and turning over, just rather slowly... That must be my problem. I have spent too much time tinkering with small odds n ends OVER AND OVER to try to find the culprit. Its gotta be the starter...
Saw this happen on a 65 Electra cream puff car. Told the guy to drop the exhaust pipes from the exhaust manifolds. He did. It started and ran perfect. Bought new exhaust system. Problem solved. "Hey Mr bohannon, We did what you said. It started right up and sounded like a stock car..." Student at Nashville Auto Diesel College, 1985.
Any qualified auto electric shop should be able to rebuild your current starter. Much cheaper than trying to find a new or "factory" rebuilt one.
yep,,, and the kit is less than $15...... it could very well be that the starter is dragging so bad that the voltage to fire the coil is all gone when you are grinding on the starter..... quick test would be to jump another car to it and see if it starts up.....if it does , then you know that everything is ok with the engine....
Okay; - dumb question; is the choke working properly? You said it's cold where you are. Is that choke just about fully closed? (You should be able to insert a 5/16 drill bit between the choke plate and the carb wall if it's closed right) As you probably already know, a bad choke makes a car very hard to start. Crank the engine over for a while, and pull a plug; - is it wet? If it's soaking wet, then the engine is flooded. Then it's a carb problem, you're over-gassing it. A quick way to check for flooding is to pull the dipstick, if the oil smells like gas, you've flooded the hell out of it and that oil should be dumped. A flooded car will not start regardless of what you do to it. If it's flooded, you've got a couple of options; hold the gas pedal to the floor and crank it over, open the choke up fully (hold it open with a screwdriver while cranking) and work it through as it sputters and farts it's way to life, or remove the plugs and dry them off. With the dried plugs, reinsert, and don't touch the gas when cranking it over, if it doesn't hit off then pull one of the plugs, and check if it's wet again. If it is, then the carb is the issue, it's dumping raw gas and is useless. This could be because the floats were set incorrectly and it's dumping gas through the vents straight into the motor. Who built the carb? Did he know what he was doing?
The plugs were somewhat dry actually. And had a dark, black char on them... not a warm brown color. I dont think im flooded out, its only pumping gas into the motor when I pump the accelerator. The thermal coating is also called "jet hot coating" and is a ceramic type coating that was offered to me by a friend and it turned out great. Its an almost chrome finish and cost me 15 bucks. I rebuilt the carb myself and it was a no brainer. the hardest part was reading up to find the float measurements which were 7/32, with a 3/4 in drop. At least that's what my 59 buick manual said, but it seems I am using the 2982 which was a 60 buick carb. Im obviously getting gas, but I wonder if the measurement is my downfall right now. I am still leaning towards it being a faulty starter...
Well,,,, like Marc said,,, on a cold winter day the choke plate should be within 1/8 to 3/16ths of the air horn wall.... with the engine stone cold.... a lot of people set the choke with the temp warm and then when winter comes along the car wont start....and , like he said, I have seen carbs dump fuel into a engine to the point that it can literally be a bomb from all the fumes inside it....
Every time I had a flooded engine, it was because; its only pumping gas into the motor when I pump the accelerator.
