ok went through all the steps and replace a hole bunch of parts and still nothing. today I removed #1 plug and covered it with tape. cranked it and waited until it popped. had the distro cap off to see if it was close to the spark point. it seemed to be about a few mm from where it would make contact. the degrees on the balancer was about 8 degrees (the bottom mark)
excuse my lack of terminology.
i'm about to loosen the distro and move it forward a bit so everything appears to be TDC.

my next thing is to leave the plug off and smell for gas. if i crank it with the distro disconnected i should be able to determine if gas is going past the injectors. wish me luck. don't worry I have 911's numberalready on my cells voice dial...lol

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=826950
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=825690

 

new plan. will move timing mark to zero. check where the rotor hits. if it's a bit off which i think it is, to the mark I made on the #1 plug. this should be TDC. then I'll fire her up. I'm running to the parts store so If you read this and see an error in my logic please let me know.

 

Sorry Eddie, I haven't followed your entire thread, buttttt-Was the car running fine b4 you messed with the door switches? It's hard for me to believe all of a sudden your timing is out of whack if it was running fine b4, did you change fuel filter? I some times think when we do something simple to our cars and then start having problems we overlook rechecking the simple things we just did. :confused: AND yes-you should be able to here the fuel pump prime when you first turn your key on!


[Modified by rick lambert, 4:23 PM 5/29/2004]

 

I checked the pressure at the strader valve on the fuel rails and the pressure was good. i'm getting fuel up to that point.
timing can get out of wack if my chain jump a tooth or I broke one. trying to rule that out. i'm going to triple check my fuel pressure again before i give it a go.
but i have checked for spark on all wires.
pressure of fuel.
and power to injectors.
all fuses.
it's not going to hurt it any if I make sure my timing is alighned.

 

You should smell gas from the open cylinder. Also, you can clip a low power 12v lamp across an injector socket and it should pulse when you crank the engine. Use your timing light and see where your timing mark is when you are cranking.

 

checked time seems ok.
did the light pulse thing on the injectors.
hard to smell gas since i spilled some checking for pressure.
pressure at fuel rails when start up and after 40psi
I'm at my limits so i'm calling in a tow.
thanks for the help guys.

 

No, that's not correct. You have it backwards - #1 piston at a position BTDC but rotor pointed directly at #1.

You must try to understand what needs to be happening here.

In order for the engine to fire, there must be some amount of timing advance. NOT with the rotor pointed at the #1 distributor terminal AND the harmonic damper mark pointed at ZERO on the timing tab.

The plug must fire BEFORE the piston reaches TDC.

You want the rotor pointed at #1 and the damper mark at a BTDC position. Not AT Top Dead Center.

Don't feel bad, there have been a couple of other guys who have had this exact same problem recently.

The way to set the distributor/#1 piston for the engine to immediately fire is as follows:

Remove the #1 spark plug.

Place your finger in the #1 spark plug hole (if you're alone, just twist a piece of paper towel and stuff it part way in).

Bump the engine until you feel pressure against your finger or until the paper towel blows out.

NOW, look down at the harmonic damper timing mark. You want the damper mark to align with the advance you're shooting for, but anything between 6 degrees BTDC and, say 12 degrees BTDC is good enough for the engine to fire.

NOW remove the distributor cap and check to see where the rotor is pointing. It should be pointing directly at the #1 terminal. If it isn't, remove the distributor and turn it enough so that it is.

This movement of the distributor will cause the oil pump drive to become misaligned, but that's okay. Just drop the distributor down as much as it will go, then bump the engine some more and, at some point during the bumping, the distributor will drop all the way down. You can place your hand gently on the distributor base to aid in its dropping.

See, since the distributor gear and the camshaft gear are meshed during this bumping, the initial timing advance you just set up won't change. The only thing that will change is the relationship of the oil pump drive rod and the distributor shaft.

Once the distributor is flush with the intake, you can lock it down but just enough to still allow it to be turned for the final timing adjustment once the engine is running.

You can verify that the intial timing setting hasn't changed by using the finger in the hole technique again.

If nothing else is wrong, the engine will fire immediately.

Hope this helps.

Jake

 

Thanks Jake for the info i'll give it a try tomorrow. can't have it towed anywhere until tuesday, so i'll have a few days to mess with this.

 

Tell me, was "no start" the original problem or was it something else?

Jake

 

One more point that some get confused on. I put up a long post on this just a few days ago, but here goes again.

The timing tab on the timing cover can be confusing to some. The timing tabs can differ from year to year, but essentially there is some way to identify ZERO. ZERO is supposed to coincide with TDC of the #1 piston.

Either there will be a deeper notch, or the numerial ZERO or a longer hash line or something that distinguishes ZERO from all the other numbers/hash marks, etc., that are on the timing tab.

This is you base reference point for setting timing, the ZERO indicator.

Now, with you standing on the driver's side of the engine, look down and find ZERO on the timing tab. You will then see other numbers on the timing tab; some will be counter-clockwise of ZERO and some will be clockwise of ZERO.

To put it another way (and hopefully make it clearer), if you're standing directly in front of the car, looking at the windshield. Some marks will appear to be counter-clockwise of the ZERO and other will be in a clockwise direction.

The marks that are counter-clockwise of the ZERO are the ADVANCE numbers; the ones that are clockwise of the ZERO are the RETARD numbers.

So, naturally you want the groove on the harmonic damper to align with one of the advance numbers NOT THE RETARD NUMBERS. As I said, any ADVANCE number from 6 to 12 will be okay for firing the engine.

BTW each little hash mark on the timing tab is a 2 degrees difference from the one closest to it.

If you happen to have the timing set too high - that is, too much timing advance - the engine will crank really slowly and hard - that's a dead giveaway. So you'd need to turn the distributor in the retard direction just a little. That's the reason for leaving the bolt slightly loose; to allow for this adjustment should it be needed.

I sent a 'How to Install the Distributor' tech tip to the Tech Tips Cross Generation board in the 'TOOLS' section a few days ago. I don't know if it's posted yet though. Take a look for it when you get a chance.

Keep me posted.

Jake


[Modified by JAKE, 2:27 AM 5/30/2004]