No start, searched, accel pump?

Man, I've seen some starters cause really weird issues.

New starter did the trick, fired right up, guess i didnt need that mechanic after all. Thanks everyone for the help

Ok site was down yesterday for me, so i'm back today. When i clicked your link joe i was like thinking that i've been using the wrong firing order the whole time. But nope, i've been using the right one 18456273. Anyways for you guys not thinking it was the starter, i took the starter to a rebuild shop yesterday. The guy tried to jump it for 2 seconds and it was turning slow and got extremely hot. He pulled it apart today and he said some part (cant remember) was broke inside and the starter was shorting out badly, he said it's not even re-buildable. He told me to buy a new one online b/c it's probably cheaper than his cost. So i'm guessing the short was pulling a lot of power away from the rest of the electrical system including the coil. I said before how the coil didnt really have a strong spark like the stock coil on my car. So i'm ordering a new starter and ill let you guys know how it goes from there.

I don't believe the starter theory of rotating too slowly. By design, some of the old 40's engines rotated very slow, but if tuned correctly they started right up. And they had old style coils, plugs etc. Ever kick start a Harley. Kicking faster doesn't start the engine....proper timing and fuel make it start.

Not wanting to start a debate, but Edelbrock vs Holley is not his problem either. Both are fantastic carbs. I have both and am in means an expert and can make both work. Save your money and keep troubleshooting. You poured gas into the engine and it wouldn't fire so don't start looking into a fuel problem.

So you elimanated fuel as the problem. You say that the plugs have spark. So it must be the timing which could also be off if you ran the wires incorrectly.

How did you line the dots up when you istalled the new timing gear?

Does your starter just go dead or does the engine rotate? Are you sure the timing gear problem hasn't wiped out your cam?

Nice clarification alan, his firing order should be 18456273, the diagram I linked I to I was citing for cylinder numbering and rotation of the distributor which are the same for both L and R hand engines. I have have made both the numbering and rotor rotation direct mistakes before, damn fords number different, have number one in the wrong spot, and turn the distributor cap the wrong way... I will never figure out how I ended up with 5 v8 fords in my motor pool something went terribly wrong somewhere...

The starter not spinning fast enough is never the reason a well timed engine barely needs a bump to start

if your getting a steady stream of gas out of your accelerator pump now then the edelbrock is working more than enough to get that bad boy firing.

You have spark, you have gas, as chris is getting a little frustrated about there are only two other things that could be the problem, one is compression which I would check but is not likely and the most obvious thing is improper timing or my favorite mistake the spark plug wires routed incorrectly.

I have made every mistake possible in the past in routing spark plug wires and every time I was sure they were right, every time I changed a bunch of stuff that worked fine, and every time when I finally got it right I couldnt believe how easy it was to get an engine to start. Check here
and make sure, pay close attention to the rotation and numbering and once its right dont be afraid to rotate that cap a bit. Good luck.
-Joe.

81nautique wrote: 79, Is it time to pull #1 plug and check to see if when the piston is at TDC the valves are actually closed? I've been thinking thats the problem all along and you cautioned about this a few months ago when the chain was being installed. I think that would be my next step, only takes a few minutes and atleast you'll eliminate the question.

Going to check tomorrow

wannabeSS wrote: But I have a question, if the motor was not at TDC when I had the dots lined up, then something is not right/broken with the gears/cam/crank correct?

depends if you where on the compression stroke or not with the crank when it was at TDC and also if you installed the gear on the end of the cam correctly. Some gears have different offsets for the timing and if you didn't read the instructions then you who knows. Don't bye it's the carb, then again alot of guys have know clue how to adjust a Q-jet to start with which is what a edelbrock carb is basicly takes a little more skill but once it's set you really don't have to mess with it unlike a holley carb which is easy to adjust but requires frequent adjustments over time.

and since it turns freely until it fires then seems to slow down the carb's not going to cause that but a timing chain installed incorrectly will.

do your self a favor and invest in a Holley, go through and check out everything 79 is telling you too.
Every Edelbrock carb Ive had in the past always had starting issues... always had to crank the sh*t out of them. it maybe a coincidence with the starting problem, but Ive ran into this twice in the past and the last time i had a Holley 780 laying around and i threw a rebuild kit in it and bolted it on, it fired the car everytime with no more than 2 revolutions

Ok I looked all over the carb and cant find a model number. I did however look at edelbrock's site and my carb looks exactly like the performer marine carb, the problem is, i dont know if it's the 750 or 600.

well it will help if you can have someone else crank while your rotating the dist slowly until it fires and stays running you'll also want to have the throtle cable disconnected so you can run it with one hand and rotate the dist with the other to keep it going double check the firing order just incase you have some wires crossed ccw at the cap. also you will only need to rotate the dist maybe 5-10 degrees and don't have the clamp to loose just loose enough to rotate but still stay put once you let go.

you can go too far with the dist so just because it spins faster doesn't mean it's where it should go. you may have it advanced to much and need to back it off a little. just don't crank it for ever and give the battery a break. two full pumps on the throtle then crank but only the first time. another trick is to just screw down the idle screw so it's high to get the motor going then you can get the timing light out and dial it in to where it needs to be.

it will crank faster once you get the timing closer, all you have to do is rotate the dist very slightly one direction or the other, one way it will slow down more the other it will speed up. But if you have old crappy plugs, cap, rotor or wire that's not going to help and make it even worse.

like a said before get some old school mechanic that can tune carb'd motor's as well as a FI motor and it will be fixed in about 5 minutes.

old boy has been at it a while offer a lot of help, and now just getting to replacing the stuff that should have been replaced and check long ago, keeps saying has no problem fixing his hot rod but the boat's kicking his butt please just because the motor rotates the other way means nothing you still do the same stuff to fix it, worried about applying tape to get the timing right should be able to do it with out a timing light to start with just sounds like he's pissing in the wind and it's time to step back and let someone else take over, then again maybe it's a little tougher than just lining up the dots on the timing gears. Besides think this about the third thread he's started trying to get it going.

79nautique wrote: think it's about time you paid someone to fix your boat, your really have some trouble on some basic stuff.

You're kidding me right? Nothing is going right with this damn boat. I built my car from the ground up and run 10.50's in a car that I drive to school everyday. I dont know what I did to piss off the motor gods with this boat. It's not like I started off with a good starting boat to begin with, after the first couple months I had to play with it for 30 min before I went to the ramp to make sure it was going to start. On another note, I replaced the cap and rotor today, going to do the plugs tomorrow and give it another shot. And how should I orient the timing tape?

Ok I did some testing and the ignition module is fine. I have 12 volts at the coil. I pulled all the plugs and some had a little bit of green corrosion so i'm going to change them today and i'm going to change the cap and rotor. I have a question though, I bought some timing tape because my balancer is messed up. I need to know how to install it on this reverse rotation engine so I can time for BDC. This is the tape I bought