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Engine will not start. NEED HELP!

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OK here goes.

I've been working on a 250 1966 6 banger that was given to me by my father. The engine only had around 40,000 miles on it so I decide to replace all of the rubber stuff, hoses, gas line etc and blasted the intake and exhaust manifolds changed gasket, flushed the radiator and installed a new water pump, new belt etc etc and reinstaled. I rebuilt the carb taking great care in the rebuild. (I even took digital pictures as I opened it up so that I woudn't mess up!) In addition to all of this I changed out the spark plugs, wires, coil, point, condinser, had the exhaust reworked and a new clutch installed. OK to make a long story short, I put everything back together the truck ran like it was new for several weeks until I decided that the old distributor cap needed to be replaced. I changed it out with a new one and bam!x( the engine wouldn't start. So... I figure... the cap is wrong... I changed back to the old one and nothing...the engine wouldn't hit at all. I double checked the wiring and triple checked. No problem there. I checked to see if it was getting fire to the plugs and that's no problem. Checked gaps... changed out points and condinser again...still not a hit...(still got fire to the plug.) tried jumping off the engine, recharging the batt. still nothing... I know that the carb is getting gas... tried starter fluid... nothing... not a single hit. I've thought about the timing but hey... how do you check it if the motor won't start? Plus, I can't find the timing adjuster on this old engine. I do have a timing light that I can borrow but, still how's this going to help me if the engine won't hit! I'm just rookie at this and would love to hear from a pro! IF you have any suggestions as to what I should do next, I'm open to them... PLEASE HELP!!!
 
how did the plugs look did they look like new did they have water on them. you timeing chain may have jumped teeth. check the compression if you have no or very little start with replacing the timing chain and gears.
cowboy
 
Since it ran good up till you changed the dist cap, I would continue to look at that as the culprit. Did you change the rotor as well ?

I would look at the coil and recheck that all the spark plug wires are where they should be. Inspect that rotor as well. If you didn't change it the first time, do it now and reinstall the new dist cap.

Are you getting "anything" like it's trying to start or just cranking like NO Spark?

DValentine
 
RE: Engine will not start.

I agree with DV, since rotor buttons aren't that expensive anyway, I would put a new one on. Another cause could be that you may have nugged the distributor body when you replaced caps. I would hook the timing light while turning the motor over to see where it's hitting. Hope this helps.

Robert
 
RE: Engine will not start.

Thanks!

I did check the plugs, sorry I didn't mention it. They were replaced when I did all the other stuff. When I checked them they still looked new. I will check the timing chain when I work on it this weekend. :)
 
RE: Engine will not start.

I didn't change the rotor. I checked the spark plug wires using the assembly manual several times. I'm getting nothing at all. Just turns over with no hits...

Thanks for you help. :)
 
RE: Engine will not start.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I got a new rotor button when I did all of the original work. It was running fine with this one. I'll try hooking up the timing light this weekend. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
RE: Engine will not start.

Coil or (most likely) Condensor. Change the points and condensor.
 
RE: Engine will not start.

hey...
quick check to eliminate the possibilities is the difference between primary and secondary ingnition.... pull coil wire off cap turn motor over, is there spark? if there is not its coil, points, condensor or point gap. if there is spark at the coil then it could be cap, rotor
wires etc, recently i come across a situation where we replaced a 6
banger with a 350 and we had same problem and tried two different distributors and its amazing what happens when a simple ground strap comes apart. added a ground strap to motor and ran like a top.
 
RE: Engine will not start.

Hey everybody! Got the old girl up and running tonight. All of you who mentioned the timing chain get an A+. Weird that the thing busted about the time I was changing the distributor cap, but that must have been what happened. I replaced it with one I found in a junkyard and BANG, she started up and ran like a sewing machine. Thanks everyone for all your help.:D
 
RE: Engine will not start.

Engines are funny sometimes, odd how something happens, and it's one of the things you think wouldn't break. We had an old 51 Cub Lowboy tractor come in the shop for a rebuild, and it took about five months to get it rebuilt, hard to find parts and at a reasonable price. Well, we got it together, and the dern thing would start to save it's life. We spent four more weeks working on it because the starter ratchet brock, then it locked up. When we finally got everything back together it still wouldn't start. The plugs would fire on sometimes, and then they wouldn't till about 5 more revolutions. So we checked the point gap, and it was off by .010, after we adjusted it ran like a champ. Weird how something so small could cause so much trouble. Anyway, off topic, but I thought I'd share that with you guys.

Robert
 
RE: Engine will not start.

>Hey everybody! Got the old girl up and running tonight. All
>of you who mentioned the timing chain get an A+. Weird that
>the thing busted about the time I was changing the
>distributor cap, but that must have been what happened. I
>replaced it with one I found in a junkyard and BANG, she
>started up and ran like a sewing machine. Thanks everyone
>for all your help.:D


That is too wierd !!
 
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