i can not figure this thing out, it acts like its going to start but wont catch. when i bought the car it had been rebuilt but never run i have spark and fuel and compression, so i checked the firing order and some one had put the wires on wrong so after fixing them it still wont catch. if anyone can help i will appreciate it.

 

do you have power to the ignition with the key on? is it now flooded from all the cranking? how did you verify you have fuel? have you rotated the distributor clockwise or counterclockwise?

 

Olds firing order goes counter clockwise. If you have spark, fuel and compression it should start.

Unless maybe your timing is not right. I would start with TDC and make sure the rotor is pointed at number one.

If your timing is right then poor a little gas in the carb and see if it starts.

 

i do have power and its not that its flooded because its been doing this same thing since i started working on it i have rotated the dist but it only seems to fit right i one position.

 

its got to be timing but that is something i really dont have much experience with so how would i go about checking the timing. plus i have the firing order right but the rotor spins clockwise.

 

The number one piston needs to all the way up on the compression stroke. If you take the spark plug out you will fill air coming out of the hole when its on the compression stroke. I put my finger above the spark plug hole so I can fill the air and have some bump the starter. When its on the compression stoke turn the engine by hand at the crank with a socket until the grove on the balancer and the 0 on the timing tab.

Then take off the distributor cap and make sure the rotor is pointing to the number one.

 

 

Right - make sure you have 12 at the coil during cranking and around 8V or so with key in RUN position. Two different voltage sources. Almost sounds like the RUN voltage source is not there.

 

i checked the timing i pulled the #1 plug found tdc and found that the rotor was pointing and the #3 so i switched the plugs accordingly and all i got was back fire through the carb and zero engine fire when before it was at least trying to start. i also looked at my wiring to the cap because the engine harness is jacked up on this car but i noticed that it only has the two wire the come from the cap and one that comes from the ignition to the cap and on down to the starter am i missing something here

 

Do you have a service manual. I have to ask you do have your firing order going counter clockwise right.

I would have recommended pulling the dist. and placing it back in pointing to the right one instead of changing the wires.

 

I hope you mean that you removed the dist and re-positioned it so that the rotor was pointing to #1 plug wire and that you did not just swap plug wires??

 

?? Why? The distributor has no clue where it's pointing. All it knows it when either the points cycle or the magnetic pick up align it fires the coil. You can stab a distributor on any which way and so long as you have enough room to adjust it and the plug wires in the correct order it will fire the car just fine and you will be able to time it just fine.

Personally I think he needs to recheck TDC on #1 because being 4 posts off is really bad. So either he messed up or the timing chain has really jumped and it's time to dig into the engine.

 

True but he swapped 2 wires, or at least that is what I read and now the fire-ing order is not 18436572.

 

no i have the firing order correct i just think that who ever put the dist in wasnt concerned with direction so what i did was changed my number 1 to where the rotor was pointing at tdc then i moved the rest of the plugs in succession with the firing order but other than that i got it trying to fire but i noticed that my positive and negative terminals are smoking up when i try to turn the car over and there is limited cranking power. does anyone have any ideas, i also figured out the cap wiring so thats not an issue any more.

 

How long are you cranking it? No longer than 30 sec at a shot and then let the starter cool down for a couple of minutes.

 

remove plug 1, you can see the plug numbres on the manifold.
Also the firering order.

turn the crank by hand so that piston nr 1 is al the way up, look at your timing.
should be 0.
Also your rotor should be on plug 1. if not loosen the bolt and set it right.



if this is ok, than look if all your wires are on the right plug ( see intakemanifold) for plug and firering order.

Feel the sparkplug cables, or check for spark on all the plugs.

 

trie a differend coil, or check if there is ground .
do you use the right wires?

 

i finally got it running i had a mess of little problems but they are fixed now and shes running good thank you guys for all the help and and actually responding to my post.

 

How did you fix it.