I removed my distributor to shorten the mechanical advance slot, this required a complete disassembly.

Now I put it back in the car, and it won't start up. It'll crank nice and fast, but it won't back fire, chug, nothing. I'm assuming absolutely 0 spark.

I've got power at the power input plug going to the distributor cap. I'm assuming somewhere between power input, and spark plugs, there's a missing link.

Can anyone give me some places to probe with my multimeter to check? I don't have a helper here, so i'm stuck doing this solo, if possible.


Thanks

 

You should be able to see pulses on the tach wire with the voltmeter. If you can, then connect a plug wire to a calibrated spark tester or gullible younger sibling.

 

pulses on the tach wire, while cranking right?

then crank the motor over, while holding a plug ground strap, against the block, and watch for the sparks?

I'll have to try these when my brother gets home...



I had a brainwave:
there's a collar, the slides over the center shaft, press fit, this collar holds the rotor mounting tab at a certain height. Now I had to remove this stuff to enlarge the slots. When I pressed the collar back on, and therefore set the height of the rotor, I didn't really pay attention to this. There was slop in rotor mounting "plate". in reference to the weights mounting plate.

I just tore down the distributor, and pushed that collar back up, to take out any slop, now ~.030" vertical slop. But now the rotor sits a bit lower. The teeth on the center shaft are ~1/8" lower then the stationary teeth. (top surface to top surface)

Is there a spec for these dimensions? I think this is most likely my problem, since I didn't R&R the coil, capacitor, etc, no wiring changes in the distributor...


I was hoping to drive the car to an exhaust shop tonight so they could modify my new y-pipe tommorow

 

The teeth should be pretty much even with each other.

 

hmm, well that musta been it... I reset that height, turned the motor back to TDC on #1, dropped in the distributor, made sure rotor pointed to #1 and it fired right back up

Hey Chris, is your 383 in the car and running yet? I noticed you got a 305 TPI 5 speed, that your new daily driver?

 

No, it looks so shiny and clean on the stand that it would be a waste to put it in a car.

 

Haha. thats what i figured with my motor too.


And i was right. After a few hours run time the rubber seal at the front of the pan (between the timing cover and pan...) split in half and now ive got a slow drip!


Oh well, yank the motor again i guess...