truck won't start!!!

[daves66nova]

1986 Toy truck,22r carb'ed.Rebuilt head,replaced timing chain,assembled engine.hooked up everything,added gas into carb to start,cranked the engine nothing.loosened dist,rotated back and forth fast,and i seen spark from coil wire.I tried to get spark from spark plug wire,nothing.Changed cap,rotor.Tried again ,nothing.I do have spark from coil.I have hooked up timing light to no.1,then cranked to see if i even have any spark at all,nothing.I've tried starting fluid,nothing.It was running perfect before i took it apart.I have replaced the starter because it was going out before the head job.I put a rebuilt one in.It seems to crank a bit slower.Would that be the problem? I also decked the head .030 .Would that be harder on the starter,due to higher comp?

 

[Quest]

check your distributor (esp. cap and rotor) for shorts, and also trace back to your distributor coil (high tension side) to see if you are indeed having consistent sparking (if not, suspect a faulty ignitor module at fault).

then you go from there.

Q.

 

[river_rat]

To me, this all points to the possibilty of valve timing being off a couple gear teeth.

 

[expat]

Are you saying you have NO spark at the plug end of your HT wires? Any of them ?
Check cap and rotor.

 

[OVERKILL]

Did you set the distributor correctly? Bring #1 cylinder up to TDC on the compression stroke, and then stab the distributor with the rotor pointing at #1 terminal on the cap.....?

 

[mechtech2]

Spark at the coil but not from the plug wire ends narrows the search down to a few things.
Cap, rotor, wires, or maybe the distributor is off. The rotor is not pointing where it should when the spark fires.

 

[daves66nova]

Originally Posted By: river_rat
To me, this all points to the possibilty of valve timing being off a couple gear teeth.
but it should still spark or maybe even a backfire

 

[daves66nova]

I now remember taking off the plastic cover under the rotor that says "do not remove".What i don't get ,is if i move the dist around by hand it sparks,if i crank the engine ,no spark.

 

[Gary Allan]

Do you have two ignition wires on the + side of the coil? Try wiring the coil temporarily to 12+ and see if you get spark. While the cap/rotor thing should have produced spark, you said "by hand --spark ..by cranking ..no spark.

 

[daves66nova]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Do you have two ignition wires on the + side of the coil?
Only 1 wire.I've tried that,nothing. Can it be a faulty ign switch?No juice while cranking?

 

[mechtech2]

He HAS spark. At the coil.
So the problem is after that.

 

[daves66nova]

this time i closed the air gap on the pickup coil and reluctor.It seemed easier to make spark when i rotated it by hand.So now i did get spark to the one spark plug wire that i tested.I always seem to get an extra spark as soon as i stop rotating the dist.What i noticed is that a spark jumped from the base of the dist. to the valve cover!! What the heck is up with that?! Also, i hooked up everything again and cranked the engine and nothing.The dist. should be grounded because it's obviously bolted to the head right?Can it also be that a wire is not getting juice while cranking,but does get juice when the key is on?

 

[flanso]

Could that replacement starter be defective, drawing so much current that there is insufficient juice to the distributor? Assuming you have a manual transmission, is a pop-the-clutch start feasible? As an alternative, with a voltmeter, measure voltage at the distributor during cranking?

 

[stroked93]

Bad Rotor.

 

[daves66nova]

Brand new rotor.Does send spark to plug whenever i rotate dist. Is the pickup coil supposed to be grounded to the dist or isolated from it? What should the resistance be if i check the pickup coil?

 

[daves66nova]

Is there supposed to be voltage in between the ign. module that's under the coil, to the coil?

 

[mechtech2]

Yes, of course.
So do you really have spark or not at the coil?

 

[daves66nova]

I do have spark.Just yesterday i checked for voltage and nothing! what the heck is going on?

 

[kc8adu]

spark jumping from the cap to the vc means a bad cap.
saw this on a mitsubishi 3.0 in a van.
are you sure the distributor is turning when you crank?

 

[daves66nova]

Originally Posted By: kc8adu
spark jumping from the cap to the vc means a bad cap.
"What i noticed is that a spark jumped from the base of the dist. to the valve cover" spark doesn't jump from cap to ground