Hey guys...it's about that time!

Finally tried to start my 68 big block (396) for the 1st time... With no luck. I've built a ton of cars before but this is my 1st time w/ a carb/distributor, so I have limited knowledge of what I'm doing.

Car turns over. I charged my battery so we're good there. I installed a new distributor/cap/rotor but am not sure where the #1 plug goes. I had it on compression TDC and tried to align the distributor correctly according to a few vids. I tried one wire position, then another. You can see my wire numbers (and order!) in the pics, please tell me which is right. I thought the #1 was just to the right of the door, but then I read that was #8, so I rotated everything over 1 spot. New acdelco wires and r45ts plugs.

The fuel may be old, so I'm going to put a few gallons of premium in there tomorrow after I get all the info I need.

The wife had a meter on the coil while I was cranking, it read around 7v. Oil pressure was reading ok.

What am I missing? I'm sure it's something basic at this point. Anything wild need to happen with the carb initially? I cleaned it up when I got it, it's probably literally the only thing I didn't replace on the whole car haha. So whatever settings it had before, are still there now. Any assistance would be great! Appreciate you!

 

The firing order is important, but where you start the order is up to you.
when the #1 cylinder is at TDC, the rotor of the distributor needs to be pointing at the post that you have the #1 wire plugged into. Then just follow the firing order. Once it’s running adjust the distributor to set your timing.

 

I think I installed it with the cap on, and pointed the access door towards the #1 at TDC... I didn't actually see where the rotor was at during that time, so that definitely needs to be verified. I'll check tomorrow!

 

when pointer is at tdc it can be firing on 1 or 6. so if you set it up with 1 at the rotor when on tdc and it is popping out the carb and banging in the exhaust you are 180 degrees out. switch every wire with the one straight across from it.then, after hearing it run, pull the distributor and put #1 where it makes sense...note: tach drive distributor. the distributor goes in where the tach drive cable fits best. NOT where the pictures of trucks and Novas have their windows.

 

Yeah that's the thing, I had no noises whatsoever when it was turning over. It was just turning over strong but with no internal ignition noises. When it was at TDC I spun the distributor notch inside the engine w a screwdriver to align the notch on the distributor itself towards cylinder #1. I think I'm going to reset TDC and reset the rotor along with some fresh gas.
I switched to a Dakota digital setup, so no more tach drive cable!
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sounds like no spark at all. if you have spark that is timed way off, it usually fires somewhere. do you have a timing light. hook it to any wire and see if light flashes while cranking.

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. I did buy a new timing light, I'll throw it on there today to see if I get anything

 

Ok so I took my timing light, no spark on any wires. Put the timing light on the wire from the coil to the distributor cap and got some flashes. Just to double check, put a spare plug on the end of a wire and cranked the engine, no spark at the plug. So it looks like there's an issue getting spark from the top of the distributor cap to any of the points inside of the cap via the rotor. Any ideas?

I did verify continuity from the top of the cap to the inside of the cap, and from the rotor to the thin metal piece that sticks up and is supposed to contact the inside of the cap. All good.

 

When I have not run the 427 in my 1968 for more than a few months I will pull the distributor and using a battery powered DeWalt Drill spin the oil pump to pre-lubricate the engine. Then I would use a small funnel and fill the float bowls thru the vent stacks on my Holley with fresh gasoline. This will help things when it does start up.

Recently there was a fellow Forum member who was having difficulty starting his engine and it turned out that he put Die-electric grease on the tops of each of the spark plugs instead of inside the spark plug boots and on his battery connections as well. Die-Electric grease IS NOT CONDUCTIVE and it will keep the spark from getting to the plug if put on the plug ends. It is also not good to use on batteries or other wiring because it is not conductive.

Battery grease is conductive but Die Electric grease is NOT. I use battery grease on my battery connections and Die-electric grease to keep the spark plug boots from "sticking" onto the spark plugs.

Is the rotor inside the distributor cap the right size or correct unit for your engine? Try cleaning the surfaces on the rotor and the inside of the distributor cap with a small piece of emory cloth or a fingernail file.

 

Recheck all your wiring. Not sure whether you have breaker points in the distributor or something else, but, there is a single black wire that comes out of the bottom of the distributor. That wire should be connected to the screw or push terminal on the points set. There should also be a black wire from the capacitor (condenser) inside the distributor that connects to the same terminal. The black wire form the distributor should hook to the coil (-) terminal. Wire from the ballast resistor (terminal opposite the side that connected to the ignition switch) should be connected to the coil (+). The coil connections matter. If you have access to a dwell meter, check to see that the dwell angle is about 28 to 32 degrees to be sure the points or electronic equivalent are working correctly. You have the firing order correct.

 

Is this a rebuilt motor being started for the first time or one that has not been run in a while? Your post was not very clear. If it's never been fired up before, all that cranking with no start may compromise your lifters and destroy them in 20 minutes or less, unless you have a roller cam. Please take note of this if it's a newly built engine- I would hope someone could learn from my mistake!

 

-- I did prep the oil pump prior. I spun it for maybe 3-4 minutes on and off. I did NOT pre-fill the carb with gas. I was scared to blow something up haha. I'll look into it though. Question regarding that -- should I be seeing any fuel pressure when cranking? I have an inline fuel pressure gauge and filter just right before the carb. I installed a new fuel pump as well and had to take it off a while ago and i remember seeing fuel in it from turning the engine over by hand, so I'm assuming fuel is getting up to that point. I'm not sure if the fuel pressure only reads after the engine is actually running as cranking may not produce enough pressure to get a reading. Should I be seeing fuel spray out or anything?
-- No grease on the plugs, just a very small bit of anti-seize on the plug threads
-- Its a new distributor, which came with the cap/rotor all installed as a unit. It looked 100% identical to the one I took off of the car, so it should be good. Part numbers matched up as well


-- Its a whole new unit, so im assuming everything should have been connected correctly internally. I can double check though. I do have that single black wire connected to the negative on the coil, along with one other wire which runs back into the cabin for my Dakota Digital setup (I think it may be for the tach). I believe that these (1968) may have had a resistor inside of the wire from what I remember reading. That is the only wire I have connected to my positive side on the coil. I took pics when I 1st started that project almost 2 yrs ago and thats pretty much how it was set up before. I thought my timing light had a dwell feature but I cheaped out by one model number and got the one right underneath the top tier one, so no dwell readings haha.

This was the motor that was inside the car when I bought it. I did take everything apart, oil pan, redid the rear main, heads to clean them, new gaskets etc etc... so technically its an old engine being started again for the 1st time in a while after a partial refurb. When I took everything apart I put it back how it was and made sure nothing was dry or should have any issues, so hopefully thats still the case! if not I guess I'm going crate


One thing I will add, is the person I bought it from bypassed the box in the front that some of these came with that gives it an extra strong spark -- I cant remember the name of the system. I'm not sure if that makes a difference. But the way they had it worked before the rebuild, so I just put everything exactly how they had it, but with new parts.

Thanks guys!

 

TI…TransistorIzed Ignition. Hmmm, how do you get around that?

Steve O.

 

can you post a pick of the distributor with the cap off and the box you are talking about, If its an original l points distributor you need to set those. If its a transistorized dizzy you need to address that. If you have spark at the coil and none at the plugs, its internal to the dizzy

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's it. Has the small box towards the front driver side of the car?

I can post the pic tomorrow morning before I leave for work. It was def the TI box. I think they just bypassed it by taking that wiring out of the equation. Right now it's just a regular distributor with the 1 wire running to the neg side of the coil and the 1 resistor wire running to the positive side of the coil.
But yeah, voltage and spark at the coil/wire coming off the coil to the top of the distributor and if I move my timing light to any of the cylinder wires I have nothing on any of the wires.

 

You stated you were getting 7V at the + side of the coil with the ignition key in the Start position, you should be seeing 12V if the 12V start system wiring is connected correctly.

+ Side of the Coil
ING S/W Off - 0V
ING S/W Run - 9V
ING S/W Start - 12V

When the ignition key transitions from the Run to the Start position you will lose the 9V and pick up 12V from the R termnial of the starter. This is why you have two wires connected to the + side of the coil (non TI system). You stated the TI box was bypassed, that would lead me to believe the TI harness is still in the car. Below are a couple pictures of the TI system and typical to all TI systems wiring diagram. All of this assumes the Dist was installed correctly. I would like to see a picture of the inside of your Dist and top of coil.

 

Is it safe to assume this engine ran at one point with the Dist installed in its current configuration?

 

Yeah I found out I had the TI system when I was going through the harness and found that pink wire essentially going to nothing, so I started a thread about it. That harness is still in the car.

Not sure what you were specifically looking for on the distributor, but here's a quick picture I snapped. I can take the rotor off if needed.




This engine ran, but with a different distributor. I cross referenced the old one to this one and basically hooked it up the same way/configuration


Edit: I found this random picture of when I was disassembling the car. I was labeling where all the wires went and I put that this random jumper was on the + of the coil. Looks like he had it spade plugged into the pink wire on the connector, which is probably what I'm missing and what confused me about the wiring in the 1st place. I don't think I put that back

 

You have to set the points gap to get it to work. You might also need 2 wires going to the positive side of the coil. If the system was stock you would have a white and a yellow. One has power on crank and the other in run.
Look up how to set your points

 

OP states that he has no spark at spark plugs, but he does have spark at coil.

When I was testing my original coil compared to a new coil, I stuck a spark plug wire into the top of the coil. With a spark plug on the other end, the distributor cap removed, ignition on, I could turn the rotor to open and close the points to compare the spark on the spark plug. This also verifies that your points and condenser are working.