hello all, I have an old K10 with a 292 inline-6 that has been dead reliable every time I start it- until last weekend. I drove it up to the mountains (6500ft) and back down to the town I live in (5300ft). The truck was running for about two hours non stop. On the very last leg of the trip, I was coasting down hill in 4th gear, and noticed the exhaust “burbles” getting a little louder, I pressed in the clutch, and a huge explosion sounded, later found out to be my muffler exploding. After this, the truck stumbled pretty heavily, and would die out if I touched the gas pedal. Spark finally gave out and died and I restarted it, but then the power would get weaker and weaker, as I stumbled down the road, then finally died for good and wouldn’t restart, battery was holding good voltage and turning her over just fine. On the side of the road, I replaced the points, gapped to .018” replaced the rotor, cap, plugs, wires and coil all to no avail. Towed her home and replaced the starter, starter solenoid, and tried three more coils, and replaced the all wiring from the ignition to the starter and battery etc. truck just isn’t putting spark to the coil, not even if I jump power straight the coil from the battery. I’m at my wits end and need some help getting this old girl running again!!
I replaced the condenser attached to the coil, as well as the condenser inside the distributor. @tb33anda3rd, The rotor is spinning when cranking, and points seem to be opening and closing as they should. I haven’t messed with the timing, because it was running when it died.
Pull #1 plug and bump starter to get it up on comp. stroke, align timing marks on damper and check to see if the rotor is pointing at #1 post on dist. cap.
When the rotor is pointed at cylinder #1 the timing mark on the tamper centered inline with the motor/valve cover, well above that “A” mark on the timing tag
I’ve never re-timed an engine from scratch so I’ll need a little handholding from that end. Pulled the dist, what exactly am I looking for here? Thanks
If the drive pin is sheared can that be replaced or do I need a new distributor? I’ve never had an issue with points, would it be worth looking at the conversion to HEI at this point?
Clean it up, verify the condition of the pin and that the gear is firmly attached to the shaft and hasn't slipped. The pin can be replaced. Points are fine...no need for HEI.
I’m not sure what the pin is supposed to feel/look like but the gear at the end of the dist has about 1/4 of slop up and down