I've been having random starting problems the last few weeks. Ok, my wife decided to take my car after I told her three times not to cause I hadn;t fixed the starting problem. So, now, my car sits at the grocery store parking lot all alone. My buddy and I noticed that the distributor is faily easy to move and as we turn it one way or the other, the car gets easier and or harder to turn over depending on which way we turn it. However, the car will still not start.
How is it possible to set the ignition timing if the car will not start in the first place? I've got an 89 IROC 350 auto tranny.

 

the first thing i would do is to find out if you have spark coming from the cap to the plugs. If so then i would make sure you have fuel reaching the cylinders. After that i would keep turning the dist. back and forth until it gets easy to start. Then tighten the bolt holding the dist. down from turning when you start. If is still won't start. Then you have another problem. Poss. pickup coil.

 

I disagree. The first thing to do is to get your WIFE out there instead of your buddy and have her help you get it restarted. (Sorry, Mrs. Eyerock, but your hands might get dirty and you MAY even break a nail...)

If the engine has been cranked a lot with the timing moved, you may have wet plugs by now. The loose distributor isn't a good thing. Try to get it close to TDC and check the rotor position, or take a timing light and set the base timing. You can set the timing while only cranking, not running.

 

VADAR - Lol, thanks. I will give my wife alot of credit though. She has done alot of work on the car with me. Her little arms come in real hand when changing an O2 sesor and other thingsShe absolutely loves the IROC. Shes driven it to work everyday for the past two weeks. . And...unlike most women, she knows 80% of the things under the hood and what they do. I agree though, she should have been out there helping me, but she was mad cause she had to walk a mile home after the car stopped working on her..haha. I got a good laugh out of it cause there was nothing she dould be mad at me about..I told three times not to drive the dang car.......and the women say we don;t listen.
1a12 - Thats sort of what got me in trouble in the first place was moving the distributer around. I know for a fact thats the problem cause I've had this problem ever since I did the manifold gasket and didn;t set the timing. NOrmally, on these random start problems, the car will start, but it will not idle properply and I'm getting a slight miss when I run higher RPM to keep it from stalling.
Thanks for the help, oh, do I need unplug the pigtail connector at the back of the distributer when setting the ignition timng or is that only for the regular timing?

 

You shouldn't NEED to disconnect it when just cranking because the computer doesn't take over timing control until like 400-450 RPM's, but it would still be a good idea to do so. As soon as you get it running, I'd leave the timing light on it and let it warm up a bit, then get it set right anyway.

Running with the distributor loose is not a good thing!

 

Ignition timing = "regular" timing. What you're doing, is causing the spark to occur at the right "time" in relation to the crank position.

Just set it to where the car runs about right; then shut it off and disconnect the connector; then crank it back up and set the timing correctly, with a light (the Check Engine light will come on); then shut it off, hook the connector back up, and clear the ESC code that got set by the connector being disconnected. And don't forget to tighten the dist back down.

 

Excellent, I just went and bought a timing light so I rekon it;s time to have at it. Thanks for the help guys.