I seen a mechanical fuel pump go bad once and fill the crank case,it would turn over great had spark and all, but the lifters were washed out and wouldn't open the valves enough to start,when he pulled the oil pan plug it looked like water coming out the end of a fire hose
at this point i would try a spark tester.the open type that you can adjust the air gap to determine how much kv spark you have. a spark at the plug means nothing compared to a spark inside a cylinder with compression.small plastic tester they cost 8-12 bucks easy to use.
Sorry for the delay guys. I hate to say it but back to the drawing board. It wasn't the problem. The other day when I got home I checked and found the idle screw still turned down to the point that the blades were closed. I thought for sure that was it! I spent today getting everything back to where it was such as hooking up the msd etc. I cranked the idle up and still nothing. I set the timing and checked spark etc. and everything is still good. I could see the timing as someone suggested but I'm not even getting a backfire, sputter, nothing. I'm at a loss. Thanks everyone for the input, I really appreciate it.
Sorry but I have to be mean for a minute... you said you that you thought it wouldnt start because the throttle blades were close?? and turning the idle screw to open them would make it start? Come on man!! its a carburated car not a sensitive computer security lockout!! sometimes you have to pump the shit out of it and feather the throttle. Now I have to ask myself If you really did check all that was asked of you. Honestly I really wish I was near by so I could get this thing fired up for you and be done with it, but Im just too far away.... Pump the shit out of it, feather the throttle and curse at it a bit!!! Sounds like everything else is there to start
I can't wait to see who's going to have the bragging rights and please don't say, i told ya so,i told ya so!!-----------the devil made me do that
Seriously guys? Pulling your leg? You think I came here and asked for a second opinion just to waste your time and mine? I exhausted everything I could think of at the time and figured it was something simple that I was missing out of frustration. I pulled the throttle back by hand and gave it a healthy shot of gas, reached in through the window and cranked it over. If the idle screw is all the way out and the blades are closed, how is it going to get air??? If the primary blades are closed and secondary are obviously closed. Plus I held it to the floor and cranked it to make sure it wasn't flooded. It's not that. This car you pump once, turn it over and it starts. If not, you repeat. Once it starts then you feather it till it warms up. This isn't my first rodeo. I've been doing this for 30 years. As it turns out this was something so off the wall that I have never ran across before I came here. I figured I was too close to it to see this obvious and needed a second opinion.
Second opinion? Who gave you the first opinion? I would remove them from my list of experts. This must or should be extremely embarrassing for you. I would admit to wetting the bed before I would tell the Hot Rod world that I could not make an engine run. Complete steps 1 through 6 and if that fails then you are not a car guy. 1) Check the engine's cranking compression. If it is 100+ PSI then mechanical problems are ruled out. 2) Verify that the ignition system is delivering a hot blue spark to the spark plugs. Check the strength of the spark by testing the distance that it will jump. If the spark is strong then the electronics are ruled out. 3) Check the ignition timing with a timing light. If the mark on the harmonic damper is anywhere near the reference scale on the timing cover then ignition timing error is ruled out. (asuming that the harmonic damper is not junk) 4) If you smell an abundance of raw fuel or the spark plugs are wet then the engine is flooded. Disconnect the fuel line from the carburetor and cap it off. 5) Check the spark plugs for raw fuel foul. If the spark plugs are dry then re-install them. 6) Follow Hot Rod Don's advice and spray starting fluid (ether) in the carburetor while you are cranking the engine over. (don't wash the cylinders down with ether) If the engine does not attempt to fire then you F'd up on one of the steps 1 through 5
Please tell us where the tach wire is hooked up? An older MSD box has a tach terminal on the end that takes a slid on bladed connector. The newer MSD boxes have a gray wire for the tach. That is where the tach signal wire goes. If you hook it to the neg. coil terminal you can fry the electronics in the tach. You also know that the MSD supplies 2 ignition hits to the coil per firing cycle and will in most cases double the rpm indication?
Or You know I'm almost to the point of heading to Springfield and figuring out WTF is going on here. It can not possibly take more than 2 hrs to correctly diagnose a "no start" condition and that 2hrs contains a whole lot of screwing around time. Someone with 30 yrs doing this crap knows exactly what I'm saying here. It's just F.A.S.T. once mechanic soundness is proven with a compression test. Fuel Air Spark Timing
You only need 3 things for fire ..fuel, oxygen and ignition... It sounds to me like a intermittent spark issue , your tach going funny tells me electronic issues.... So eliminate all old electronics , put in a known working dist without all the mad Mumbo jumbo find a friend with a working dist. Cap and all... Put it in ....I promise it will fire.. After it fires now you get to figure out what little electronic issue happened I have heard msd boxes a wierd with small spikes like battery chargers, funny altnators, jumper cables Just cause stuff is new doesn't mean it's not broken
Cut the guy some slack. There are very few of us that have not had some sort of issue over the years that had us pulling whats left of our hair out only find it was something simple that escaped our trained professional eyes. I've sent him a pm with my phone number and am more than willing to go over and help out.
You are right, we've been there before, but being on the other side of the computer screen it seems like such a simple fix...lol
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