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no start
Ok so my 1977 250 custome with a 400 is throwing me for a loop. First some of the details, it is a pull truck with a complete msd ignition system, bored 30 over, a bigger cam, and ported and polished heads topped of with a 4 barrel intake and a holly 650. I was pulling down the track the other day and it got hopping in the front end and on the final bounce the engine cut out. Now it won't start, it turns over and occasionally backfires and flames up on the carb which tells me it has fuel and spark, but it will not start. Does anyone have any idea of what might have happened? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And if you need any other information I'll do my best to give as many details as possible. Thanks in advance
MSEE
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 10,386
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From: Austin, TX
Any chance the distributor worked itself loose, and now the distributor is out of time? It does not matter if you can or cannot rotate the distributor by hand. Are these cold starts you're trying? What's the position of the choke?
Rotate the engine to TDC on the compression stroke of the first cylinder. You can use your finger over the spark plug hole to tell compression vs. exhaust. Report what hour on the clock the rotor points to.
Rotate the engine to TDC on the compression stroke of the first cylinder. You can use your finger over the spark plug hole to tell compression vs. exhaust. Report what hour on the clock the rotor points to.
MSEE
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 10,386
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From: Austin, TX
Unless your spark plug wires are all rotated accordingly (the basis of Roger's question), typically the rotor is to point at the 1 o'clock position in this case. You'll have to confirm.
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Sep 2003
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From: Corbett, Oregon
With the description the OP gave in the original post I would bet the timing chain jumped a tooth or six. Possibly even some parts breakage:
and it got hopping in the front end and on the final bounce the engine cut out
Hopping equals sudden starts and stops and that leads to breakage.
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MSEE
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 10,386
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From: Austin, TX
Agreed, could be a skipped chain too.
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I took the piston around one more time and now it is at roughly 10 o'clock so looks like my distributor jumped and hopefully not the rest of it. I have a double timing chain on it so I'm really thinking it wouldn't jump time. And yes the hopping was bad, I'm working on resolving that problem as well. Gotta do some playing with that then I'll get back to you. Thanks for the help
Laughing Gas
Joined: Sep 2003
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From: Corbett, Oregon
Before you start tearing things apart, you need to confirm where the #1 plug wire is. Is it at the 10 o'clock position? If so, that would mean the distributor had been installed different (re-indexed) than Ford installs them and the plug wires shifted to compensate.
If #1 plug wire lines up with the rotor at the 10 o'clock position, your problem is probably not a timing chain or sheared pin.
Just trying to help you confirm the basics and to keep you from tearing things apart needlessly.
Good luck.
If #1 plug wire lines up with the rotor at the 10 o'clock position, your problem is probably not a timing chain or sheared pin.
Just trying to help you confirm the basics and to keep you from tearing things apart needlessly.
Good luck.
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Well I finally dug into the truck today and found that my rotor broke and was spinning freely. Cheap enough fix. Of course then my solenoid decided to go on me which caused the starter to fry so it's back to the store. Quick question about the solenoid. Where do the two small posts run to on it. My wires run into a big mess of covered wires
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