My neighbor just rebuilt his 302, 5 liter, fuel injected, engine on his 87 ford van. He cannot start it. He also installed a new computer. He has spark and fuel is getting to the cylinders, but no luck. A dealer service man said he needed to check the "kill switch." Neighbor says he doesn't have one. Anyojne have any ideas??

 

Well the kill switch should technically not allow fuel to flow, so if he is in fact getting fuel pressure that won't be it. As far as what it could be, no clue, though I'd suggest maybe trying the old computer, maybe something wrong with the old one? Has he tried pulling codes maybe?

 

It is quite possible that he put the distributor 180 degrees out.. ie.. Its backwards. My dad and I did that with our first 302 rebuild. Just my .02....


Bill

 

There could be many things wrong but, if you have fuel and spark it must be the way the dist. was installed.

Take out number 1 plug closest to the alternator, turn the engine over with a wrench while you or your buddy holds their finger on the hole, when you start to feel air pressure coming out of the hole the timing marks should be getting close to the pointer, stop when the pointer is on TDC.

The distributor should go in with the TFI module(the part on the side that the wire harness plugs into) pointing tword the front of the vehicle about at the radiator cap. The trick here is to put the cap on an mark the side of the distributor where the number one plug stud is, there should be a 1 on the cap. You mark the side so when you take the cap back off you can see your pen mark.

Put the rotor on, oil the o-ring lightly and slide the distributor in the hole, hold the rotor just counter clockwise a little of your mark so when it slips down and the gears mesh the rotor moves to your mark, if you set it down with the rotor pointed right at your mark it will move forward when the gears mesh, you will see when you do it. If you have a new o-ring on the distributor shaft it may be hard to push all the way down, a brass punch or piece of wood and light tapping with a hammer right on the base of the distributor where the hold down bracket goes should get it the rest of the way down, just make sure you feel the gears mesh good before you tap it down. Put the hold down on it. I usually leave the bolt loose so I can turn it back and forth, don't get it to loose where it can move up but don't get it to tight so when you try to turn it, it is hard and jerky. You want to be able to smoothly rotate it. When you time it you won't have to move it very far.

Check your firing order in your book, make sure your rotor is on good, install the cap, put the plug wires on, don't forget to put #1 spark plug back in! The firing order goes counter clockwise around the distributor.

Once the plug wires are on get your timing light all setup, pull the plug out of the connector that is on the wire harness by the TFI module, it is a little 2 wire harness that dangles off the part of the harness that goes to the TFI module. Mark your timing mark on the balancer with some chalk in the 10 degree notch, have a buddy start the pickup and check the timing. If you need to slightly turn the distributor just a bit and line up the timing mark you made on the pointer. Once it is lined up turn off the engine and tighten the distributor hold down. Start it up again and check the timing, turn it off and install the timing plug back in the harness, your all done. You can play with the timing from 10-14 degrees. 10 degrees is fine some people bump it up to 14 to get better power. Hope that helps.