Firing help! She turns over but..

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David J Brennan

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Hey everyone! Do my 72 dart got
Delivered a few days ago! 318 freshly rebuilt. Was described as a "driver" needless to say it isn't. I received videos of it driving up on the truck. When it got to me it was dead. I changed the battery and she fired right up, drove it inside... Wasn't running great. Ever since I shut it off, it will not start again. It just turns over. It's getting gas but no spark. Changed the common electrical solenoids on fire wall and started solenoid. I tested the distributor, that's getting spark. But it's not getting spark to the plugs. Could it be the points? Cap looks fairly new and clean but have no idea what else it could be. Any help is greatly appreciated
 
strange that it was fine one day and not so much the next... not points as that SHOULD be an electronic ignition. Is the distributor loose? moisture inside the cap? bad rotor?
 
It is not electronic ignition. Had the cap and rotor off. Don't see any moisture or corrosion. Unplugged the distributor wire and it sparked when turning over against metal. Pulled the spark plug wire, against metal while turning car over and no spark
 
AJ/FormS said:
Mis-located rotor?
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is that even possible bud? isn't there a slot in the rotor for the shaft so it can only go on one way? - what really gets me is that it DID run - albeit badly... sorta sounds like the distributor clamp is loose and the timing is turning out with each rotation of the engine...
 
where does the #1 cap point aim? in other words -if you follow the #1 wire to where it goes into the cap - at the cap, is that point more toward the left (drivers), the right or the middle?
 
ScampMike said:
is that even possible bud? isn't there a slot in the rotor for the shaft so it can only go on one way? - what really gets me is that it DID run - albeit badly... sorta sounds like the distributor clamp is loose and the timing is turning out with each rotation of the engine...
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Yes it is possible for the index or the rotor tip to tear off, usually from someone not locating the cap correctly, or reassembling it without that exasperating little cam retaing clip on the top of the driveshaft.
So make sure the dang rotor is turning with the reluctor.
 
Something simple like leaving the key in "run" WILL damage the points, and can sometimes damage the coil or ruin the ballast

You have TWO power sources for ignition, one is in "run" and the other is in "start." Clip your meter to the coil + and read the meter while cranking using the key. You should have very close to "same as battery" and in no case below 10V

If you are going to keep points "at least for awhile" you need to get yourself a dwell meter and feeler gauges to set them. Dwell meters almost always have a "points resistance test" to show whether they are conducting "hard" or not. "It's been so long" I'll have to look up just what acceptable "is"

Keep in mind you MUST have a good condenser (in the distributor) to form the spark, and of course the coil must be good.

Don't discount "could be" a bad coil wire. Easy to check, the old school was less than 1000 ohms per foot means a good wire for resistance wires.

Check the rotor and cap for moisture, damage, grease, and "carbon tracking". Take a GOOD look at the rotor.
 
So I walked into my shop today after not touching the car since Saturday and no luck starting it. Turned the key and it fired right up! Shut it off, fired up again no problem. Been a hour and won't start again LOL
 
Bad rotor button. If you have spark out of the coil at the distributor but not at the plug wire then it is probably a bad rotor button. Unless is arcing/shorting inside the distributor.
 
David J Brennan said:
So I walked into my shop today after not touching the car since Saturday and no luck starting it. Turned the key and it fired right up! Shut it off, fired up again no problem. Been a hour and won't start again LOL
Click to expand...

So, you are not going to actually read the thread and follow along? You would rather just easter egg the thing? The reason I'm asking is that you can save some of us a lot of time. In other words, you want help or not. If yes, pay attention. Otherwise, "it's just a blog"
 
David J Brennan said:
So I walked into my shop today after not touching the car since Saturday and no luck starting it. Turned the key and it fired right up! Shut it off, fired up again no problem. Been a hour and won't start again LOL
Click to expand...

And what does this mean?
Is the first sentence all part of Saturdays experience?Or does the no luck pertain to today?But today it did start up!, so you did have luck. And it fired up a second time , so you had luck,twice. Then an hour later, it didn't start, so was that the no luck part?

In any case, we now know that it will in fact run.., so, it's not a bad timing chain, or a bad battery, or a bad bunch of lots of things.......
So I gotta ask; what is your starting procedure?
 
I put in a new coil, cap, rotor, started solenoid (had a extra) and the two electrical boxes on fire wall. It is getting gas. Also sprayed starting fluid in carb and nothing happened (so no spark) it does run and will run. I've taken everyone's advice and gone through and double checked things. Just ordered a condenser, points, and plugs. Tomorrow I will get them in and see what happens. Before I left my shop I just fired it and it fired right up. Very odd but atleast it does run!
 
oh jeeez - -I got it, it's a gremlin -

gremlin.jpg
 
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