Dirty Dalton

I've tried to follow this - Three things needed: air, fuel, ignition.

You've confirmed timing is good, so at least that's out of the way.

Getting spark at the plugs while cranking? Fuel to carb? Choke closed? Any signs of life? Tried ether?

You, Sir, are a brave man to take this on, so far from its home.

Dazaa Rafae Aman

I believe we have narrowed it down to the spark being weak, plug tester is showing an orange spark and only about 4v at the coil, but even when I connected 12v directly to the coil it still wouldn't fire up. I'm trying to locate the engine to frame ground wire to clean up. My neighbours must think i'm crazy working on a car till 1am everyday LOL.

Edit - fuel in the tank and poured a few drops in the carb to be sure, choke works but makes no difference

Another edit, I just realised the car was delivered in the rain and would attempt to start, then when it had been inside for a day or two it stopped firing, this would suggest a bad ground right?

leigh1322

After reading all this again It is still a little confusing. Can you confirm the following?
1. Battery is charged up and has 12.6V?
2. Voltage should only drop to 10V when trying to start? Does engine spin smoothly & briskly while doing so? If it passes this the whole starting system is OK. Battery, big cables, big cable grounds, starter, etc.
3. Voltage is measure at 12V feeding coil using jumper wire.
If it passes all that and still won't start,and give big fat sparks (you have a spark tester!), I'd test or replace the coil. It does look horrible on the outside.
If you want to test the coil, use an ohm-meter setting, and if you lookup online I am sure you will find some appropriate readings. They usually die when rust causes them to short-out internally. Then they make crappy sparks.

OldCarBum

Have you tried doing a google search for any classic car or Corvette clubs in your area or near you?
You may get lucky and find a local club that has a member with a classic that knows their way around classic cars.
Someone who really knows classic cars may be able to help you who has hands on experience and is willing to help out.
They may have contacts for local parts stores or even a performance shop.

brit vet

There are plenty and I've sent Daz a link to the UK Corvette club where he can get recommendations for contacts in the South that will sort it. My mechanic 'up North' would have that running before breakfast but he would scrap that carb set up!

Dazaa Rafae Aman

I've given up trying to figure this out, it's becoming far too frustrating. Will join the UK corvette club and see if someone can sort it out. To confuse matters even more I just tried cranking it a few times and it actually fired for a split second.

brit vet

I think that's wise Daz before you get too frustrated with it or maybe do more harm than good! There's a huge following in the South that are very helpful. When you sign up make sure you check out the up coming Corvette Nationals Event at the Sharnbrook hotel which must be fairly close to you. The largest collection of Corvette's you'll ever see this side of the pond and it's an all-weekend event. I'm there with some buds Fri to Sunday with one of my LT-1's

A small sample from last year

Dazaa Rafae Aman

I had no idea there was such a following for Corvettes in the UK, thats great! Some of those cars are beautiful. Are there many younger guys who turn up?

Dazaa Rafae Aman

I think I may have figured something out, reading about that chinese distributor online, they require a ballast resistor inline with the coil. Mine doesn't have a resistor, the last time it ran was at WOT for a good 30/40 seconds, could it have burned up and be causing this?

brit vet

The best of the best go to this including from overseas. There was a guy last year took a year out and drove his C2 from the USA to Europe and then this event

There's a good mix of ages and those like me who are getting on a bit but act like kids

There are always new blood coming through so you won't stand out with a full head of hair!

And! Not every car there is a pristine garage queen. You'll see works in progress, patina'd cars, Gassers, dragsters and resto mods

ConnecticutJunkman

I am not seeing that. That dist is sold under the procomp name among other brand names. None mention needing a resistor.
Maybe it's dead but going on looks alone that crusty coil is where I would start.

Did you unhook the tach wire that is connected to the - of the coil before testing? If that is shorted out under the dash that could cause you problems.

OldCarBum

Sometimes it is best to step away, do some research and try again later.
Keep us posted on what you find.

Dirty Dalton

Oh, could be a winner here. It was a different car, but very similar symptoms. Well similar until it utterly refused to do anything.

Quite the collection there, Stuart. But I wanna know how the guy drove over there from the US. Interesting book, 'Half Safe'. They used an amphibious Jeep after WWII to travel across a considerable expanse of the world, sea and land.

Dazaa Rafae Aman

Sigh....yep just tried again with the tach wire disconnected and no different. Will still randomly try to fire for a split second. At least i'm getting some exercise carrying the battery up to my 4th floor flat every time it dies

brit vet

I'm sorry Daz but that made me laugh! A small crumb of comfort maybe?

brit vet

He was quite the character Ed and not knowing too much about C2's, maybe they float...

l82vett

I can't believe by now that you keep running the battery down and haven't figured out why it won't fire up. Buy a extension cord and leave the battery and charger in the car. Air, gas . spark If it is trying to fire , pull the plugs again , clean ,dry or replace. You probably have them soaked with gas.

ConnecticutJunkman

I guess we will see what happens when he replaces that crustation of a coil and the plugs.

Dazaa Rafae Aman

I just poured a bit of gas down the carb, pulled the plugs and cleaned them off, they weren't soaked in gas but also some emery cloth to clean up the contact a little. Still nothing, pumped the gas pedal a million times out of frustration and it fired up for about 3 seconds then died, turned key again and same thing happened. I also checked a bunch of the plugs by resting them against the valve covers and turning the engine over, they all sparked fine. There was also a few backfires through the carb even though we have confirmed the timing is ok? The chinese distributor cap is so crap it flexes and moves around since the weak metal clips are all the holds it together, could that contribute to this?

I'm learning a lot from this but I also feel like there was a reason this car was laid up in 95...

ConnecticutJunkman

Did you check it with a timing light? If not then you most likely just got it close. Use a marker to mark where it is now down near the adjuster so you can go back to square one.. Then loosen the adjuster and rotate the distributor a few degrees counterclockwise (anti-clockwise how brits say it?) and see what happens. If it starts kicking against the starter you went to far.