Hey I repainted my engine compartment and am having trouble getting my engine to fire up. I was wondering if the voltage regulator needs to be grounded to the body, I have paint behind the regulator. Thanks.

Don't matter for getting the engine to run as you'll run off the battery...............

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

would a bad voltage regulator cause the motor to crank over but not fire?

I am really struggling with this starting problem because I drove the truck into the garage and repainted the motor. During this procees the only thing that was unhooked were the sparkplug wires voltage regualtor and hoses. Now the motor cranks over there is smoke from the carberator and the motor will not start any suggestions. The motor is out of a 73 dart 225 slant six

Make sure both the ignition module and voltage regultor have good grounds. As emsvitil pointed out, the voltage regulator shouldn't affect starting, but the ignition module definetly will. Also, you might wanna check you ballast resisitor; probably not the issue, but always worth checking when troubleshooting a no-spark problem.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Ok here is the stupid question were is the ignition module is it located on the fire wall?

Hm... on a 56? No clue, and I made the assumption you have electronic ignition. I can tell you that it looks like this though.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Thanks for the help that is the part that I mistakenly called the voltage regualtor. I removed this part and painted the firewall behind it this maybe the root of my problem

The ignition module case is the ground, so it needs to be good.

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes