New Distributor...Won't Start

[JAllenWAG]

Ok here's what happened. Got a new distributor at lunch today because the old one has a lot of play in it and about 190000 miles on it. I put in the new one the same way the old one came out...won't start. Tried backing it off some and advancing it...still won't start. Took the new one back out because it was getting dark and I have to go to work tomorrow. Put the old one back in and it still won't start. I have some backfiring through the carb when it tries to start. As far as I know the timing stayed the same throughout. I can't doublecheck it til tomorrow afternoon. Any suggestions?

[oddfire]

your best bet is to start all over again.
remove sparkplug #1... remove coil wire to cap
put your thumb over the hole and have someone bump the engine over a little at a time till you fell the compression.....now look at your timing marks, they should be reading at zero.....if not use a large socket on the balancer pulley to move the marks till they align at zero....now remove the distributor cap, the terminal that the rotor is pointing at is now cylinder #1....instal the plug wire from the cap terminal #1 to the reinstalled #1 spark plug....now go around clockwise on the cap and reinstall the plug wire in the following order onto the plugs....
1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2............replace coil wire..........this should allow you to start the engine and the retime as needed................phil

[Jeepadilly]

Of course you checked for 180 deg out of sync so that would leave elect...12 v to the dizzy?

[JAllenWAG]

Yeah I checked...it's not out 180. I'm gonna start over and do it tomorrow after work. Today was kind of a rush job so I probably missed something simple.

[TheSingleGuy]

I changed mine out and the new one was about 30 degrees different that the old one. I figured they were all manufactured the same. Silly me. OddFire has it right.

[billyrb]

Mine was that I had the wires on the wrong posts on the dizzy......try moving them all over one spot counter-clockwise. See if that helps. Mine was off by two posts.....

[Joe Guilbeau]

Oddfire got it right the first time, just Do It!

[JAllenWAG]

Haha...I like that idea Joe. I had the Just Do It attitude b/c I've removed and installed my distributor several times with no trouble. Of course the one time I try to do it in the middle of the week when I need the car every day it decides not to work.

[River Beast]

Useing a meter... check the grounding on the housing... I got a new dizzy with a bad ground... it's ground within the rubber boot going into the dizzy.

Check for spark at the cap... that is a good indicator of a bad ground at the housing as well... as long as all connections are good elsewhere...

EDIT

oops...just reread that you put the old one back in and backfires.... still check the grounding on the new one... and following the advice on setting the timing

[ April 29, 2003, 10:52 AM: Message edited by: River Beast ]