Pulled the motor to reseal the oil pan, rear main seal and the intake. The motor is a 78 Lincoln Versailles an the vehicle is a 1972 F100. It won't start at all. Doesn't even try to start. I just finished replacing the points with a petronix set up and still it does not start.

Does an ignition wire have to hook up to the positive side of the coil with the red wire from the petronix?

I set the motor to TDC and the timing line was right on the timing mark. I dropped the distributor in and the rotor should be pointing at the #1 post....right? I set up the wires in counter clockwise rotation. Still does not start or even try to start. Just turns over. I can smell fuel so I know I'm getting fuel.

The wiring was a mess to begin with so we tried to clean it up, I'm wondering if we messed up a connection.

Does any one have a wiring diagram for a late 70's 302? Any suggestions?

 

You could be 180 degrees out on your distributor, the crank turns 2 rev to the cams 1. bRemove #1 spark plug and stick your finger or something over the hole while you bump the engine over with the starter. When you feel air coming outthe piston is coming up on the compression stroke. Turn by hand at the end of comp at TDC then see where your rotor is pointing, should be at #1.

 

I guess first you should make sure you have spark, hold the coil wire .5" or so from ground and crank it. Watch for sprk.

 

I had the valve cover off so I could tell if it was on the right rev so it should be TDC.

I'm going to go double check everything and see if I did something wrong

 

How are you powering the Pertronix? On the older cars, when you turn the ignition switch, it turns off all accessories, but maintains power to the ignition coil. I made this mistake installing a MSD into 1969 Mustang. I ran its power source from an accessory line, and it lost power during cranks, and never started. I accidentally got it to start when I cranked it once and slowly released the key so that the engine was still being turned when the accessory power was restored.

I had to run a separate power line from the ignition switch; the line going to the coil goes through a resistor, so it would not power the MSD either.

 

We figured out the wiring for the pertronix and messed with the timing and got it started. It's running fine now after some adjustments.