1988 Ranger 2.0L no start

[shimonmor]

Ok...just changed out the headgasket on this little truck, had the head and valves and cam gone over by a good shop here in town, new fuel and water pump. Timing belt, rotor, cap, plugs, wires, fuel filter all done about 1500 miles ago.

Put it all back together without the emissions system...I plugged all the extra exhaust and intake ports. No start. Cranks briskly. Did a compression test...all ok...about 100psi first stroke and then up to about 150psi after 4 strokes. I visually checked valve timing with the cover off and all looks well. I'm getting fuel squirting from one of the jets in the carb. I'm getting spark (I pulled each plug while cranking). I'm pretty sure timing is on but my timing light is busted so I'm not 100% sure but the dist wasn't touched. I tried starting the dist vacuum advance on and off.

The only thing I can think of is either spark timing is off or something with the carb. I don't know that much about carbs (I'm a diesel guy) but I do know I'm getting fuel. I didn't do a fuel psi test because I have a new pump and I can see fuel and smell it.

Any ideas? I've thought about getting a cheap 2 bbl aftermarket carb to try out but thought I would see if there are any ideas before I do. Thanks.

[shimonmor]

Well I found the problem. Spark timing was off.

Turns out the distributor was off by quite a bit. What happened was that when the timing belt was off, I changed the fuel pump which caused the auxilary shaft to move which causes the distributor gear to move.

I was using a Haynes manual and it says NOTHING about making sure the auxilary gear is properly set for timing. It talks about the cam gear and crank gear and that's it. I checked through the whole timing belt procedure and distributor procedure and they don't talk about it all.

When I had it apart, I was looking on the aux shaft gear and couldn't find any timing marks and since the book said nothing about it, I didn't worry about the timing because I figured that just the fuel pump ran off the aux shaft. But in the back of my mind I knew something didn't seem right but I blew it off...the book led me astray.

Anyway, I just pulled the dist out of the block and clocked it right and timed it ok.

I've been screwed over by Haynes manuals before so maybe I should have know better, but that sure is a pretty big thing to leave out. And yes, I am using the right manual and was looking at the procedure for the right engine and model year.

Anyway, thought I would share and maybe this may help someone in the future.