I had my intake off to reseal it because it had a major vac. leak. I put on a new recurve kit on my dist along with new points, vac adv can, and condensor. I had the car started and the thermostat housing was leaking coolant. I shut off the car and fixed the leak. Now it won't start. It cranks over but will not fire at all. I am thinking maybe the ingition coil but I'm not sure. The timing wasn't right on and I needed to change it but it started up fine before I tightened the thermostat housing. Any thoughts??

 

Have you checked to see if you are getting a spark to the plugs? Did the coolant get anything wet? :cheers:

 

bet you'll find one stinking little wire fell off or broke somewhere in the process. Make sure you have power going to the coil if you find you don't have spark. Don't ask me what made me think of this :cry


[Modified by isosceles, 3:53 AM 10/12/2002]

 

I check the coil and I have 6 1/2 volts on the positive side when I am cranking the engine I have about 8. Is this normal? I changed the coil, cap and rotor and still no spark. :confused: If I have electricity coming into the coil and nothing at the spark plugs I thought it should be the dist cap but I changed that. I checked the fuses and they all seem to be okay. I have no idea what to check next.
Could the wires be bad? I just put them in. They are a cheap set because I don't have my headers on yet and when the car starts I am going to put them on and get new wires.


[Modified by scottw, 2:55 PM 10/12/2002]

 

take off the distributor cap and disconnect the wire going to the points. see if you have power. by the way depending on the year of the car you either have a block resistor or a resistor wire. on a crank the power comes from the starter at a full 12v. after the car starts it kicks into the run circuit which depending on the year either gets a full 12v from the ignition switch, and then goes through a block resistor which cuts it down to approx 8v or through a resistor wire which cuts it down to approx 8v. this is done to prevent arching across the points causing point failure. If you disconnect the wire from the points and just turn the key on you should have the full 8v. If you crank the car you should have a full 12v. If you have the proper voltages with the wire disconnect, re connect it, turn the switch on and jump across the points with a screwdriver (if the points are open) or open them with a screw driver if there closed. you should see an arc between the point contacts. if you don't, disconnect the condenser wire and try again. if you do you have a bad condenser, if you don't, check the ground from your points to your breaker plate. there is usually a small ground wire there that connects to the plate. also check the ground under the points (should be good contact between points and breaker plate). that's about it. I doubt if your coil just went bad. you should also check to see if you burnt a small hole in your rotor causing a direct ground between the rotor and distributor shaft. that used to happen on the old style bacalite rotors. lastly check the center post on your distributor cap to see make sure the contact didn't brake off. hope this helps. wcj