gearheads78

OK for you die hard olds guys you will enjoy this and get a good laugh. For you Chevy guys working on Oldsmobile this may save you from killing yourself.
So for any of you following my build in the project section its been 14 months since I took my car apart. Well thurs night I planned on starting it so I could trailer it to work Friday for adjusting all the suspension before I can drive it. Starter was dead but I figured out it was a fuse issue with my neutral saftey system.
So Friday night with the starter working I try to prime the carb but all I cab get it to do it blubber. I add a little gas over and over till finally the pump is primed but it just won't start. I move the distributor back and forth a little at a time but it just won't fire. I run the battery down trying and put the charger on it. I try another 15 min and see a small fire reflection from the raw gas in the open exhaust manifold so I just call it a night.
So today I start about 1:00 and add a temporary exhaust a few feet behind the motor so I don't have any more potential fires. I check the timing I check for spark I check the compression incase some how sitting the rings stuck. I try a differnet coil and different distributor incase the Pertronix is bad or installed wrong. I literly try everything I can think of well into tonight. So I am putting the Pertronix distributor back in and I bump the starter and watch the rotor turn counter clockwise. I thing I am seeing things and the bump it again and watch it turn counter clockwise for sure. I literly screamed out loud. So I set the timing and correct the wires in the right order and it fires in less than 1/2 a revolution and sits there and purrs at idle. I can't believe how much of a headache its been for such a simple fix.

J-(Chicago)

LOL!
Poor guy.
18436572-----Counter clockwise.

csstrux

I don't feel so bad now!!! Seens it took me most of the day to get one wheel house half refabbed.

jensenracing77

LOL. i did the same thing only the other way. my first non oldsmobile was a chevy truck in late 90s. i change the plug wires and found which one was number one on the distributor and just pullet them all off and installed the new ones starting with number one. it would not start. i called a friend and ask what was up with these retarded chevys. of course he had no idea because he was a chevy man. he came over and figured it out right off the bat. i showed him how an oldsmobile was and to this day we argue which one is the oddball engine.

442scotty

Dont feel too bad....been down that road as well...took me about a half hour of head scratching to figure it out

zed

I thought everybody knew that?...............lol.

2blu442

I thought everybody had DONE that a time or two (or three or more)

We all need a humbling experience once in a while.....

J-(Chicago)

I always f it up by pointing it at number 1 on the exhaust stroke.

citcapp

Isn't nice to know your not the only one to make this mistake. The only reason I have by passed this problem is from reading this forum before I built my first Olds engine. Sometimes we get lucky

Oldskeeper

you will notice that the starter motor is on the correct side not like a chevy and the distributor also goes the correct direction not like a cheby,when working on an olds please wear the correct hat this makes life so much easier and pleasent...LOL

jensenracing77

also has the correct bell housing not like chevy

jeffreyalman

I guess I am mechanically uninclined, what was the cause?

Oldskeeper

I think he caught that infection we call cheveitous,it makes everything else spin backwards in your own mind.

gearheads78

LOL glad I am not the only one that has done this.