273 will not start?? need help!

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Dervco

Dervco

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Rebuilt my 66 273 commando and have not got it to run yet and am having a hard time trying to figure this out, any suggestions would be great.
I have double checked the following:
firing order
distributor position
spark
gas

I put hydraulic lifters in it that appeared to be shorter than the old solid lifters. the push rods are 7.3 inches long. Kept the adjustable rockers. did a cold adjustment with advise from another mopar site

''For hydraulic lifters, I back off the adjustment until I can spin the pushrod freely between my fingers. Slowly tighten the adjustment until you can't spin the pushrod any longer, then tighten the rocker 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn more."

now the motor is straining to turn over. I get the odd pop out of the carb and that is it. Any advise would be great.
 
Sounds like you have lifters to tight.Push rods should spin.Back them off till they do.
Hope this helps you.
 
Thanks. do you think I did any damage by turning it over with them too tight?
 
When you installed the oil pump drive shaft were the timing marks on dot to dot? If so, was the slot in the gear straight front to back? If that is all correct and you dropped the dist in while the timing marks were set dot to dot then the rotor should be facing the firewall. When I disassembled the 318 that is now in the Valiant I left the dist in and pulled of the front cover to see where the timing gears were. The Ford SB is the only engine I know (there maybe others) of that the dist rotor points to #1 when the gears are dot to dot. SBC and Mopars point 180 degrees from #1
 
the lifter adjustment,tighten just until all lash is removed. you will feel it by rotating and slight up and down movement than the 1/2 turn. this can only be done when the cylinder is at tdc of compression stroke. also is the distributor out 180 degrees make sure you on compression stroke and rotor is pointing just before #1 wire.
 
MrBill65Valiant said:
When you installed the oil pump drive shaft were the timing marks on dot to dot? If so, was the slot in the gear straight front to back? If that is all correct and you dropped the dist in while the timing marks were set dot to dot then the rotor should be facing the firewall. When I disassembled the 318 that is now in the Valiant I left the dist in and pulled of the front cover to see where the timing gears were. The Ford SB is the only engine I know (there maybe others) of that the dist rotor points to #1 when the gears are dot to dot. SBC and Mopars point 180 degrees from #1
Click to expand...

Really? I did the opposite of this. dot to dot then put the distributor in facing #1. so you think I should rotate 180? The old shop manuals are not that good at expelling this stuff.
Thanks i will try this.
 
Take #1 plug out, with your finger over the spark plug hole bump the starter until you feel a large push of air, check to see if the rotor button is sitting at #1 plug wire.

With the timing chain marks lined up you are actually firing #6 cylinder.
 
Right or wrong, lining the timing marks up either way will net the same result. The distributor will go in right or 180* off. The oil pump drive will make the difference as to where the rotor points and that really doesn't make a difference as long as the firing order starts on that dist. post and goes the proper direction and the proper order and the #1 cylinder is at tdc. Did you use the old solid lifter pushrods? they are different than the hydraulics. You need the hydraulic cam pushrods for it to work. Hydraulic adjustment depends wether the lifters are pumped or not. If you are tightening the adjusters until the pushrods stop turning and then another 1/2 you are collapsing the lifter and bottoming out the plunger. Like lilhows340 said, feel the clearance in the pushrod up and down then give it a 1/2 turn. Once you get it running you will need to go back and adjust them again to make sure they are all correct. tmm
 
Yeah Chryslers engineers did that a little different from those other guys. There was probably logical reasoning behind it too. Does it go all the way back to Dodge Brothers engine assembly lines ? who knows ?
 
well it fired right up after i rotated the distributor 180. ran for a few seconds and stopped. looking for a mark on the harmonic balancer only found a O stamped on it. when this O is lined up with the guide at TDC, the rotor is not pointing at #1. I have to move the coil to position the distributor at #1, the vacuum advance hits the coil. Am i missing something? all the pictures of 273 I have seen the vacuum advance is parallel to the fire wall
 
The oil pump drivers slot positioned properly before the distributer is installed should put the rotor button and #1 on the cap in such orientation that the advance servo is parellel with the firewall allowing equal rotation/timing skew + or - .
 
If you do have a timing scale on the timing cover but dont have a scribed line on the balencer you should probably go the positive stop in #1 method and make a scribe mark for reference.
 
If I were you I'd take a long hard look at your pushrods, You very well could have interferance between the pushrods and the bottoms of the rockers (too long) as well as loss of threads mating between the rocker and ball. That is, the bottom of the ball may be "up in" the rocker so to speak, losing thread contact.

ALWAYS "positive stop" an engine you are not familiar with, used or new. Balancers DO slip, etc, but then you know.

So far as the dist. drive gear, the only reason that really matters is/ was

so the assembly line folks can wrench, repeat

So the no1 wire is always in the same spot

So the plug wires "lay" correctly

So the tuneup mechs "see" what they expect to see

Some engines DO matter, V6's fer 'xample.
 
Well the gear on the camshaft was out a notch. Now it wants to go. charging the battery for a bit and I will try again latter. Thanks for everyones help.
 
Vrooommmmm
got the timing right, the distributor was still out a notch. Runs very well and am so happy. Thanks for everyones help, I am going for a drive.
 
Dervco said:
Really? I did the opposite of this. dot to dot then put the distributor in facing #1. so you think I should rotate 180? The old shop manuals are not that good at expelling this stuff.
Thanks i will try this.
Click to expand...

If you had the cam dot at 6 o'clock and the crank at 12 o'clock and dropped the dizzy in on #1 you were 180* out.

Good to hear you got it fired.
 
:tard: I put my crank in at about 11:00, put the cam in around 3:00 came back at 6:00 by then it was 95 degress out & then I got dizzy!...:tard:
 
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