Like I said, I put in a new distributor and rotor butt, and put the wires back where they should go, and now it tries to start, and there's a very soft popping sound from the exhaust now and then, but other than that, it's not starting...I'm wondering what I did wrong, because it would start fine before I messed with it, except that it was pretty unreliable...so ANYWAY, I wonder just how far down I should pound the rotor butt in...I had to force it down over a rusted shaft, and am pretty sure it was all the way down, and it wouldn't work, and then tried it a little farther out, and same thing...please help! Thanks for all your wisdom.

 

First check and see if your getting spark at the plugs.

 

not quite sure wtf rotor butt is-sounds as if its something to go to the doctor or free clinic and get it looked at and maybe a shot of some kind to prevent further problems. what brand rotor? im assuming that the old one was equally hard, maybe even harder to remove from dist. shaft-what antics were used to free up the old one? bang twist yank pull tweek horse pry swear tap hit wiggle lift lube victory? did you notice that dist shaft corrosion while "messing" and decided that the install procedure should include a step in which the unsuspecting ignition rotor gets a "pound"ing to fit it on the shaft. can the rotor get pulled off and you can clean and dress the top part of the distributor shaft and re-install the rotor with a smidge of dielectric in the socket so it wont get so attached again.sounds like distributor sustained some damage prior to the installation portion-that hard goin on means positively obnoxious comin off. wires mis routed? did the index key in the rotor find its home with all this pounding goin on? carbon button still there?

 

This just in...a spark is getting to the plugs, at least the one I tried...not blue, but a spark nonetheless. The rotor button required prying with a big ol' screwdriver to pop off, and now the new one slides on pretty well and stops...the first time I put it on, I jammed it down real hard all the way down, but now it stops naturally with about 1/8" space between the bottom of the rotor button and the farthest I could jam it down.

The bottom line is this; when it did start, it would start just fine before I replaced the rotor button and distributor cap. So...it must be something I did. I also sprayed electrical cleaner in all the plug wire ends and on the metal of the rotor button. Thanks.

 

Fixed!!

Sorry for being an idiot, all my plug wires were off by one on the distributor cap. Now she runs like a charm, but you should have seen the crap that she belched when she first fired up!! Wow!! Thought I was doing a burnout for a sec...

 

Measure twice and cut once.