I have the ZZ4 all together. Cranked it over and could not get it to catch. A couple of small "almosts" when I really rotated the distributor beyond where I figured #1 should catch.

So I am thinking that perhaps the old man has it out 180. Pull up the distributor, rotate 180 the slipped the wire connectors back onto the distributor. Turned the key.....dash lights up for second, started does not engage and then everthing goes dark. Nothing. Checked all fuses and they are okay. Went back to the battery and I have 12.96 volts at the battery.

WIZZARDS -
Where do I start checking next???

 

The grounds.
If the star washer is not under the ground cluster on the side of the block it will cause this. Check the starter connection next.

 

Thanks Pete. I will go out and check these. Engine had been turning overs multiple times until I pulled the distributor and turned it 180.

-John

 

Took off the bolt holding all the grounds on the drivers side of the block. No "star washer". When I pulled this car down to replace the motor I put every nut, bolt washer and what ever into bags and labeled everything. I did not have a star washer with these grounds on the original engine other wise it would have been in the bag with the nut.....doesn't mean that at some point in time there was one there before I bought it. I have several of these handy, so not a problem....it now has a star washer under all the grounds between the block and negative cable from battery and all the others on top. Bolt is tight....BUT NO JOY. Still no power.

Went to starter next. All wires are tight, none showing any sign of over heating. I guess I will pull the starter and have it tested in case there is major ground in it.

 

You double-checked all spark plug wires for sequence routing?

Fuel pressure good?

Is fuel gettin' injected? (Take a whiff of the exhaust)

Is crank speed good?

 

Has NO cranking , that is his problem

 

Everything going dark when you hit crank is a large clue that the battery is poorly connected to its cables, or the battery is defective. Pull the batt cables (neg first) and clean the cable lugs, bolts and the batt terminals. Replace the cables (neg last). A very low resistance connection is required to supply the 100+ amps the starter requires. 12.96 volts under no load tells me the battery is fully charged, and if you measure the battery terminal voltage when someone hits crank position, the voltage should not fall below 9.0 volts or the battery is discharged (12.0 volts or lower no load), battery is defective (like a bad intercell connector), or the batt cables aren't bright and tight, or the batt cables have a bad connection from the cable wires to the batt lugs on their ends. What year vette do you have?

 

Oh ok.

I guess when he says "Cranked it over", and "A couple of small "almosts"", that means the crankshaft was NOT moving.

???

 

It is a 1985. Just finished installing a ZZ4 short block and build up from the bare block. Engine was turning, had spark and fuel. Just could not get it to catch. When the key was turned on the dash was lit with all read outs.

Now, no dash lights. No power anywhere. Battery cables are clean and have good connections. Negative grounds to the block are all good and tight. Added the "star washer" since there wasn't one there per Peter K.

I have tested each fuse in the block and they are all good. This is major power not going anywhere.....

 

Just wondering. Is the ground connected to the frame?

 

So at first we had cranking.

Then we adjusted the distributor, and we have NO crank situation???

So you reversed that step, and we now have cranking again, like we did at first. Right?

 

Ground is also attached to the body.

It was cranking to begin with, full function of the dash. Turn the key and it would crank. Almost caught a couple of times when I turned the distributor past where I would have thought it would have fired on #1.

Pulled the distributor and rotated it 180, dropped it back in. Turned the key and dash lights came on for about 1/10 of a second then went dark. No crank. No power.

Checked the plugs at the distributor, all are tight and in the correct position. Battery has 12.96 volts. When you turn the key...there is nothing...no dash....no crank....no clicks.....no under hood lights which are usually on when the hood is up. NOTHING.

Even if the distributor was toast....should still have power to other items.......and nothing.....like there was no battery.

 

Turning the distributor has nothing to do with your loss of power EXCEPT if you shorted the pink wire on distributor by pinching it or otherwise shorting it to ground. Almost all the electrical power to your car goes through the ignition switch and the ignition switch gets its power through a fusible link. If you short any 12v wire coming directly from the ignition switch (like the pink wire on the distributor) you will blow the fusible link and you will have to replace it. Disconnect the positive cable from the battery and connect your ohmeter from the postive battery cable and the pink wire on the distributor (you can unplug the distrubutor to do this) and have someone turn the ign sw to run, your ohmeter should read very low resistance, just like touching the ohmeter test probes together. If you measure very high resistance, then you need to replace the fusible link because it is blown. Since you don't tell us what year vette you have, we cannot tell you where the fusible link is located.
Your negative battery cable cannot go to the body of your car, fiberglass does not conduct electricity and there is no bolt on the body to make such a connection. Your negative battery cable goes to a bolt on the FRAME of the car directly below the battery.

 

Schrade, you got me thinking....hard for an old man...we keep thinking of other things...and I forgot what the first was. When I pulled the distributor, I only had to raise it up to disengare the cam gear to turn it. So it was not pulled 100% out.

So I just went out and pulled the distributor and the harness (4 plugs)that plugs from the distributor (distributor terminal board) was not plugged into its mate. So this could be the problem. I will tackle this again in the morning. I have been at it since 6:30 am. It is VERY warm here in Nor Cal and easier to work when it is a little cooler. When Peter K suggested checking the star washer, I was under the car and was thinking....how is it possable to have a water leak back on the drivers side rear?? Oh....is it the battery....BAD BAD BAD.....but no....I had on rubber gloves and it was so blasted hot that my hands were sweating in the gloves and the sweat was running out of the gloves.

Todd (Coupe89) you have to understand that, you out in Livermore.

Thanks guys. Will report back in the morning.

John

 

jfb,

Good suggestions, I will try the connector (see above post) and if that doesn't work, go with your tests. I do give you the year of the car, see my signiture in the very first post.....and again later.

I really don't think it is the fusible linik....no signs of burnt wires or electrical smell....the small wire from the negative battery terminal is still good.

And ground does also go from block to frame.

The Electrics have not been altered for the ZZ4 installation....it is just a fancy name for the block that is set up for a roller cam and roller lifters. It does come with a forged steel crank, four bolt main, hypereutectic pistons with offset pins. I bought the short block because I already had the Lingfelter 74211 cam and built it up from there.

John

 

If he did pinch this wire, wouldn't he have to actually turn the key to 'START' to short it to ground?

Instead of turning only to 'RUN'?

Possible, but I don't think so, because you said that for a moment, you DID have instrument lights.

Maybe an arc from a loose connector made the connector drop tho'...

 

Turned the key where? To 'ON', or 'START'?

 

The pink wire is, "HOT", when the ignition switch is in either crank, or run! If the pink wire is shorted to ground, then the 1/10 second he had lights was the time it took for the fusible link to blow.

 

I think the spark timing is way off (retarded), more like firing at ATDC instead of BTDC. Rotate the distributer counterclockwise to advance it. Option 2 would be to manually rotate the crank for piston #1 to be TDC and put the rotor pointing right at #1. It should start if you have fuel pressure and spark.

If the car does "nothing" and basically everything goes dark the moment you crank it, there is probably a bad battery connection. Check the tightness of the battery cables.

 

Before dropping in the distributor, I did turn the engine by hand to get TDC on #1 (finger in #1 spark plug hole to be sure piston was on compressions). Rotor when distributor is dropped in should be pointing to #1 spark plug wire. A little rotation of the distributor should get it running so you can get the timing light for final adjustment.

Turned the key all the way in one motion....ON.....START. DEAD...

Currently there is no ON, START or crank...no power. But it the pigtail is controlling the power to everything then I can understand all is dead. I will try again in the morning, 1) pull the plugs so I can turn it over by hand, 2) get TDC on #1 again, 3) drop in distributor and plug in all electrics, 4) don't forget to put in plugs again, attach wires, 5) connect battery and give it a go.