How to start car with no key?

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I have to tell you that at some point it might be better to seek local help.

Bump the engine until you can see visually that the points are open. VERIFY this by hooking a jumper wire up so that the coil is "hot wired," as discussed earlier

Then probe with a meter or lamp on the NEGATIVE coil terminal.........the side hooked to the points

You should have a bright light, or battery voltage.

Now with the engine stationary, and the points open and not moving , take either a screwdriver at the points or a second jumper wire on the coil NEGATIVE (distributor) terminal.

"Rig" your coil high tension for spark testing. Each time you ground and then UNground the coil NEG terminal, one spark should "snap."

You should see a small spark at your jumper wire in reduced light when scratching it against ground. This shows that 12V batttery power is getting to, and through the coil, and to ground.

If you have power there but no spark, the possibilities are

Bad coil wire--------try a different one

Bad condenser (the bright cylindrical "thing" inside the distributor

Bad coil

If this method DOES give you spark, RE check for spark by cranking the engine. If you get nothing, hook your test lamp to the coil NEG terminal with the coil hot wired, and bump the engine a bit at a time. The points may not be closing, or if they are PHYSICALLY closing, they might be so corroded that they are not conducting current.

This by the way IS troubleshooting 101 and has not changed since the days of the Model A Ford and before

http://www.uh.edu/engines/model-a.jpg
 
So here's what happened today. I was not getting spark at the points, turns out I didn't gap them correctly so it was not lifting off the contact point 100% fixed it now it sparks.

So I was getting spark at points, spark at plugs, started pouring gas down the carb and cranking, nothing... There was some white smoke coming out from the breather on the valve covers.

Car seems to be cranking well, but I'm getting nothing. I also noticed a little gas leak on the carb by the accelerator linkage.

Could the issue be the carb? Would an old must up carb not allow an engine to turn over even for a sec?

I've let it sit for overnight with some marvel mystery oil. I will post a video in the morning.
 
Ok. You have recd good advice so far but it's time you do a little preliminary work.
1. Check your firing order and your plug wires, distributor seated and rotor turning
2. Pull all your plugs, throttle wide open and do a compression test. If you have never done a dry and then wet test-then now is a good time to try it
3. If you have compression, spark at the proper time and a little fuel down the carb- then you gotta have noise....
Good luck

Btw-I get the feeling that you are flooding it with to much gas down the carb and be careful of back fire through the carb.
 
Pull the plugs and see if you have fuel fouled them

Inspect the cap and rotor.........are they carboned, dirty, greasy, wet?

Crank it and check for spark at a couple or three random plugs, right at the plug. That is, pull the plug, ground it to the engine, and crank. You'll have to be sure to crank long enough that it goes "to that cylinder."

Make sure you are not "over" priming with fuel, and be DARN sure what you are priming it with actually is FRESH and actually IS gasoline.

Check the coil high tension wire with an ohmeter. "Rig" a spark gap such as with a screwdriver and jumper clip that you can hold near the top of the coil tower. Remember, the actual electrical contact is "down in" the coil tower. The coil should produce a nice fat blue spark AT LEAST 3/8" (inches) long or about 10mm.

If it does not, the points are damaged, not set right, or the condenser or the coil is bad


As someone mentioned, what "shape" is this engine in? High mileage, used? Maybe it's in such poor shape that it would barely run. You run a compression check? What do the plugs look like? New plugs? Old high mileage plugs?
 
Here's some video we got this morning of the engine cranking and what not. By this point we have got new plugs, cap and rotor, points, condenser, oil and filter.

I tried moving the dizzy around (advancing, retarding) checked for TDC first cylinder 3 times. Checked for spark at first cylinder, I even tried putting in the dizzy 180 off thinking maybe it was already 180 off and by switching it maybe it would put it correct.

This first video is what happened when I put the dizzy in 180 off, it seemed to be doing better, it cranked better, and we would here like air puffing ***** from the exhaust, not sure if it's a cracked engine block or cracks on the exhaust or what not, I even got some exhaust coming out from the tail pipe.

There's seems to be some white smoke coming out from the breather on the valve cover and from the exhaust. Just little puffs of smoke.

[ame]http://youtu.be/_OuTxIggc8E[/ame]

The next video is of the engine when I put the dizzy in from what I believe is correct and TDC, but we get no action at all from the engine, it just cranks horribly and poorly. It acts better 180 off.

[ame]http://youtu.be/_OuTxIggc8E[/ame]

I'm not sure 100% what way it goes correctly without removing the timing chain cover and looking at the chain. I'm simply going by putting my finger over the #1 spark plug hole till it gets blown off and then looking at what I believe are the timing mark on the balancer.

Btw I did notice the no vacuum line on the intake which I put a plug on after the video.

[ame]http://youtu.be/k8eg9-AeczU[/ame]

67dart I will try that tomorrow, I'm beginning to think though that this motor is done. No idea how many miles, took valve covers off and it looked horrible. Absolutely horrible, old oil looked a little glittery in the sun, I'm thinking bearing probably.
 

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This is the pic that looks bad. I'm beginning to think they blew a head gasket, destroyed crankshaft bearing and cracked the block. No compression test has been done at this point
 

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Just take to ignition key cylinder to good lock smith and he can make you keys
 
There is no need to guess about valve timing with a stock cam or to guess about ignition timing.

FIRST STEP Determine if the cam has lost time, IE the timing chain is slipped. To do that get into the shop manual, you can download one here for free:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?p=1970088617

Get into the specifications in the rear of the engine (chapter 9) section, and there will be valve timing specs in there. The intake opens before TDC so you can easily estimate that on the balancer.

At this point, it might even be a good idea to check the balancer for proper TDC, because the outer ring of the balancer can slip. Read here:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1969969924&postcount=2

Now that you know the cam is in time, RUN A COMPRESSION CHECK.

Next, set the timing. There is NO NEED to guess. There are two ways to determine that no1 is ready to fire. One is to bring the timing marks up to TDC and look at the no1 and the no6 valves. Only one set will be "loose" that is have play. The other two will be slightly open, one opening, and one closing. You can easily verify this by moving the crank a small amount and watching the no1 and no6 valves. One set will move, the other set will not.

IF no6 valves are "loose" that is closed, rotate the crank ONE TURN so the timing marks are coming back up.

THE SECOND WAY is to stick your finger in the no1 plug hole and bump the engine. When you start to feel compression, watch for the timing marks which will be coming up directly.

DO NOT set the timing marks at TDC. Rather, bring the marks up to set the timing, so that is, bring them up so they marks are at about 10 BTC.

No look at the dist. Is the rotor pointing close to no1? If not, rotate the shaft 180. Now, make sure the distributor body (vacuum advance) has plenty of movement, and retard the dist. some until the points CLOSE by rotating the dist. CW.

Now, wire your test lamp to the NEG side of the coil, and hot wire the IGN. Slowly move the dist advanced, CW, until the points JUST open. Snug down the dist.

Now set the cap on, and see what tower the rotor is approaching. It will be 'coming round' to the right. so it should be approaching the corner of one tower. THIS IS WHERE you stick the no1 plug wire.

The engine should fire with no messing around at all.

This is assuming it has good SPARK and that the plugs are clean and not fouled.

good FUEL

good COMPRESSION
 
So the timing was WAY off! it was not set properly on the cap, and it was 180 off! so at TDC it was pointing toward cylinder #4 (on engine. not cap). So i was gonna try to do it the way 67dart suggested but, the manual was making it sound complicated hahah so i just removed the timing cover and inspected it visually that way.

So I got it to TDC by viewing the timing marks on the chain sprockets, saw how the dizzy was off, adjusted the dizzy a little, I had to move the plugs on the cap over once for the firing order on the cap to be perfect. I will take some pics.

Other than that I think im going to put it all back together again, and see what happens.

Do the marks look okay? or are they off? im sure there okay.
 

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Cannot tell. My guess would be "OK" You need to rotate the crank one turn and line them up with a ruler by the centers of the shaft, the crank dot at 12 o'clock and the cam at 6 o'clock. Be sure to take care to look with your eyeball "straight in" at the sprockets.

Once again, this will put no6 ready to fire.

My guess? Since this is an all-metal cam drive, they are OK. That engine looks AWFULLY gummed up. I'd bet it's about ready for an overhaul.

Did you ever run a compression check?
 
No, I have not run a compression test yet, but I did go rent one from autozone today.

I was gonna put it back together again without putting new gaskets on, and then i thought "dude, what are you doing"? so I just stopped and decided i will go to the parts store first thing in the AM. So after i have assembled everything I will run a compression test. Then try and start the engine.

From what I get the dizzy was just way off! I didnt notice that the cap had a little indicator on it for where 1 plug should be. I just put it on the one pointing towards cylinder #1, so after switching the plugs over clockwise once, it all made sense.

Timing marks on chain were good for TDC, rotor pointing towards spark plug wire #1. I feel now its perfectly timed because this thing was WAY OUT!
 

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[ame]http://youtu.be/ctWnnpWqgw0[/ame]


Got the cuda up running! Took a quick compression test before running the car. Of course it's not running all that great after sitting for 15+ years but I'm sure after cycling the engine a few times with some internal engine cleaner, then some fresh gaskets and a carb rebuild, I'm sure this thing would probably run fine for a year or so.

Anyone recommend some goo internal engine cleaners?

Here where the compression readings, gonna run another one after thi thing has had a couple more oil changes.

Cylinder 1 = 60
Cylinder 2= 60
Cylinder 3= 60
Cylinder 4= 50
Cylinder5 = 35
Cylinder 6= 45
Cylinder 7 = 50
Cylinder 8= 35
 
So you played with the distributor until it was simply out of time? Those compression numbers are LOW. I'd run it awhile and re-check when the engine is warm. Either that or that engine is "done." Judging from the goo inside, I'd say it's about "there"
 
Andre68 said:
http://youtu.be/ctWnnpWqgw0


Got the cuda up running! Took a quick compression test before running the car. Of course it's not running all that great after sitting for 15+ years but I'm sure after cycling the engine a few times with some internal engine cleaner, then some fresh gaskets and a carb rebuild, I'm sure this thing would probably run fine for a year or so.

Anyone recommend some goo internal engine cleaners?

Here where the compression readings, gonna run another one after thi thing has had a couple more oil changes.

Cylinder 1 = 60
Cylinder 2= 60
Cylinder 3= 60
Cylinder 4= 50
Cylinder5 = 35
Cylinder 6= 45
Cylinder 7 = 50
Cylinder 8= 35
Click to expand...

Holy ****.... talk about worn out! What ever happened to this engine?
 
Andre68 said:
Cylinder 1 = 60
Cylinder 2= 60
Cylinder 3= 60
Cylinder 4= 50
Cylinder5 = 35
Cylinder 6= 45
Cylinder 7 = 50
Cylinder 8= 35
Click to expand...



are those numbers with the throttle open or closed?
cranked it once and read it or cranked it until the gauge stopped moving?

any chance you checked valve lash before you did this?

you've been trying to get it running so im guessing this was a wet test with gasoline ?

apart from the low compression the variation is 40% between the lowest and the highest number
that is an issue
 
If you know anyone one with old Mopar keys just try theirs. When you find one that works, copy it. There were very few cuts.
 
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