Hi all,

Need some ideas. My slant won't start. My friend and I have checked the following:

Timing-including physically checking the pistons are moving, set several times.
Fuel- definitely getting gas into the engine
Spark- from the battery all the way to the plug

I have no idea why it won't start. Any thoughts? We've moved the distributor to the proper location several times, double checked the work, and it won't start. Tried starter fluid and gas in the carb, no luck. The engine will turn over, and ran previously, but doesn't now.

I hope you guys can help, I'm pretty much stuck. Thanks!

Does it try to start while you are cranking it? Bad ballast resistor, loose wire to coil, lots of possibilities.

What is the quality of the spark? Do you have points or electronic or a lean burn?


(What year is it?)



CJ

_________________
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

compression

Has timing chain jumped?

_________________
85 d-100 HEI 2BBl
06 Toyota Corrola

maybe give us a clue of what you have under the hood? without any real idea of whats there, have you chekced your voltage at the coil? also like ceej said make sure the coil wire that goes to ballast isnt loose, sometimes it even comes out of the wiring harness on the firewall.

but before i spout anymore tell us what you got

The engine ran previous to what? Did you change something or did you just come out and it suddenly wouldn't start?

More info would be helpful. Dennis

All,

I don't have much info to give on the engine. It's a slant six remanufacture, but the casting/serial #'s are not on that little ledge anywhere, so I can't say what size it is. I was told it's a "70's" slant, but that isn't very helpful, I know. The rebreather filter is in back, if that helps at all. The car itself is a 69 4-door Valiant, and the VIN comes back as a 170, but again, I was told by the seller it wasn't the original engine.

Dennis, it ran before we left it alone for about three weeks. It had fuel stabilizer in it, so the gas isn't bad. Then, unfortunately, we started monkeying with the distributor, trying to set the idle speed and distributor advance. We pulled the distributor because we discovered the engine ran better when it was adjusted all the way advanced. We thought the distributor was off one tooth, and moved it, and now it doesn't start. Moving it back where it was didn't help, so we have no idea what's wrong.

The engine does try to turn over, it's not popping though. We have re-set the mechanical advance according to what's in the book-TDC, distributor "just before" #1 cylinder.
The spark is very good/strong at the plug, so I'm pretty sure it's not the coil wire. Would the ballast resistor do something odd to the spark? In my admittedly limited experience of ballast resistors and fusible links, when they go they stop or reduce the spark significantly.

Based on the difficulty moving the crank when doing all this re-setting to TDC, my friend doesn't think the compression is bad. I know, there's "think" and "know," and we will check it today.

Thanks, all!

This is a very basic idea, but that's usually all I have to offer. Have you tried to crank it while somebody moves the distributor back and forth? If that's the only thing you changed, you should start with the distributor.