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Jun 2, 2010 | 12:34 AM

Sethpruitt01

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Advice?

I have an 83 ford bronco with a 351w and it started running crappy the other day (like it was out of gas) so after some trouble shooting ( checked all fuel filters, cleaned the carb. ) i found out my distributer cap and rotor were bad. so i replaced them and got my firing order and everything correct found tdc and set my timing ( i thought) and put it everything together, now my truck wont start at all. i checked and its getting spark. what could be wrong/what should i do?
Thanks in advance,
Seth.

Jun 2, 2010 | 01:04 AM

nashaj

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From: Navarre

It's probably your timing or the wire's didnt go back on the way they came off. You say you found TDC? Did you pull the number one plug and make sure you were on the compression stroke, and is the the rotor pointed at the number one spark plug terminal on the rotor cap? If not you could be a 180 degrees out of time and it won't start. Even if you do find TDC and have the rotor pointed in the right direction, this is only a base timing and can be way off but it should start, so when you do get it started, your gonna have to get a timing light and adjust the timing around 10 degrees BTDC or a little more

.
Hope this helps
Drew

Jun 2, 2010 | 01:18 AM

Sethpruitt01

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yeah i mae sure it was on the compression stroke i have no idea whats goin on. but heres a pic of how its sitting, the plug terminal with the yellow arrow is where the #1 plug is sitting. i thought it may help. i know the firing order is correct from there.

THanks. Seth.

Jun 2, 2010 | 03:12 PM

nashaj

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From: Navarre

Well if you have proper timing/spark that only leaves two things. Fuel or air. If your cranking the engine over and it's not starting the carb should be dumping fuel into the cylinders. You should be able smell a strong gas smell. You can crank it a few times and pull one of the spark plugs to see if its covered in fuel. If your confident you've ruled out spark/timing then its more than likely a fuel issue. You checked the fuel filter and cleaned the carb. These would be good places to start looking!
Good Luck

Jun 2, 2010 | 06:18 PM

Sethpruitt01

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Yeah ti know for sure it has spark' i just finished replacing the coil and i got the duraspark module tested and its fine. and i am 99.99999999999% sure its getting fuel i'm just wondering if my timing moved or something. and i dont have a timing light and my harmonic balancer only has one mark' no degrees or anything and im not even positive that its correct. but thank you soooo much for your help and advice so far.

Jun 2, 2010 | 06:33 PM

nashaj

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From: Navarre

Your harmonic balancer should have timing marks on it and they aren't anywhere near that one big mark your talking about. Maybe they've rusted over. You can get at the HB best from underneath. Get a wire wheel attachment and a drill, climb underneath and find the timing marks. When your number one cylinder is at TDC the timing marks should be on top with the pointer pointing about zero.

If you do find the marks. Make sure the number one cylinder is on the compression stroke then turn the engine by hand until timing indicator is lined up on zero, then install your distributor with the rotor pointing at the number one terminal.

If you do all this and you have fuel it should start.