The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Got spark.. compression, but no "pop"..

I got compression.. I got the spark plugs sparkin'.. I got a hot wire going from the hot side of the battery to the positive terminal of the coil.. I got the points set... i know my coil, points, cap, rotor and condenser are good because they were pulled from a perfectly running engine..

I dump some gas in the carb... crank it.. no pop.

Timing perhaps?

Probably is timing, or spark plugs that are fouled. Do you have the right firing order? 153624 clockwise on the distributor.

It's got brandy spankin' new plugs in it (gapped to .037).. firing order is set the same way as it was on the 235 I "borrowed" the cap and wires from.
(I assumed the 216 and 235 have the same firing order)

does it turn over as fast as it should? it does sound like it might be timing,,did this just happen all at once or has some-one been tinkering with it?

I haven't ever had it running.. it arrived as a "I dunno" motor.

Distributors are not always installed the same way, number one could be anywhere. Pull the cap and see where the rotor is pointing when the timing mark is in the window. That will be either the position for #1 wire or for #6 wire, depending on which is at the end of its compression stroke.

Fumblin, I'm going to assume you have spark between the points.

I went through the same thing, 3 different times, when I put the new 216 in my 46. It had been sitting in storage for about 3 years.

I never did determine what the cause was for sure, but I played around with the cap, plugs, roter, coil, and all of the various wires with no success. I eventually filed the surface of the points real lightly, and it popped right off.

It's been starting and running fine all summer since.

By the way, I had spark at the points prior to this, but not as large as I thought it should be. About knocked my father-in-law on his butt, after I filed them.

I dunno what is wrong with it

Hi; When I bought my truck I had the same situation. Turns out the timing was 180 degrees off. No idea how that happened. Anyway, the rotor should point at the number one plug inside the cap when the timing mark is at TDC and both valves are closed on number one cylinder. You have to pull the valve cover to check this.
Rich

This may sound redundant but did you have #1 at top dead center on the compression stroke when you dropped the distributor into place with the rotor pointing to the #1 plug wire? Might be the problem.

Or pull #1 plug, put your finger over the hole and crank the engine with the key off until you feel the compression.

I agree with many above, I think you have a timing issue. you need to set your motor to top-dead-center and find the location of the number one plug on the distributer. Once you have that, then you can set you cap on from the other engine putting the wires in the proper order 153624.

I had the same issue as you did, I checked everything and the engine would turn over but nothing else would happen. I started over setting the engine to TDC on the flywheel re-did the wiring and I am back in business.....

Fumblin, after you've established TDC, and made sure your dist. is positined correctly, and then re-checked it, and re-re-checked it Then make sure you can get that thing spinin' like it should, that was part of my problem when I first got mine running.

Had the battery on deep cycle charge overnight, going to the autoparts store for new cables.. guess i'm going to check the online manual to determine where the timing mark is, and how to tell when it's in the right position.

Pull the valve cover, and watch the valves on #6 cylinder. Turn the engine over (clockwise) with the fan. When the exhaust valve is about halfway closed, and the intake just starts to open, set the distributor rotor to point toward #1 plug wire. Now, turn the distributor housing clockwise until the points close, and turn it back counterclockwise until they're just barely open. Button everything up and fire it off. Works every time!
Jerry

Well i've gone from "rar..rar..rar..rar.." to "rar..rar...rarrarrar...rar...rar...rarrarar"

I've got nice hot spark now on the points, and all plugs are nice and hot sparkin'.

The flywheel has a nice glaze of surface rust on it, so I can't make out any timing marks to line up with the little finger thing in the "window".

I'm going to try Hotrod Lincoln's method today.. i'm hoping it's just a matter of me not having the plug wires on right, because at present i'm not sure where the #1 spot is on the distrubuter.