Awesome, thank you. I will post the pictures of the timing gears that I took yesterday and then run out there with a straight edge to check the center line. I have been reading up on when the valves open up in the rotation of the crank. Is there any way to check this with out a degree wheel and indicates to see if its right or is it too close to check by eye watching the rocker arms and feeling for tdc and bdc?

 

Does this look right?

 

Ok, so I checked the center line with a straight edge and everything is lined up perfect. The fuel pump eccentric is at the bottom of the stroke and all the pictures I have found has it at the top of its stroke and the old timing chain if lined up on the marks puts the eccentric at the top of its stroke. I'm waiting to take a picture of the old timing set but I gotta wait till my phone charges up. Thinking about it though, it shouldn't matter if the cam gear is off by 180* cus one rpm would make it lined back up, or am I thinking about this wrong? It runs but lacks power and back fires through the intake and exhaust and compression is good.

 

So here is the old timing set. The little arrow #1 is the little dimple for alignment, arrow #2 is the little arrow that I'm assuming is the other alignment mark, and #3 is a he exactly 180* from the alignment mark that I have no idea what its for. Any thoughts on the 180 degrees off idea?

 

Ok, so I'm officially an idiot! 180* off on the cam timing would put the distributor off 180*. But would it still run rough? I guess my next step is pull the valve cover to check to see if the rockers are opening the valves when the when #1 is firing or if they are closed when its firing. I appreciate all the in put you guys have had and any more thoughts would be great to hear; I'm only 24 so I still got a lot of learning left to do.

 

Damn, the valves are closed on cylinder #1 comes up to tdc and the distributor is pointing right at #1 on the cap. Everything is lining up perfect and I'm out of ideas, please help me.

 

Unless one of the alignment marks is off on one of the sprockets. Has anyone ever had that problem before?

 

This engine is kicking my ***!

 

1) Check for vacuum leaks and manifold vacuum reading (needle should be fairly steady).
2) Check fast idle speed (900 to 1000 is good).
3) Check slow idle speed, fully warmed up and choke open (550 to 750 depending on your setup)
4) Check idle mixture screws. Turn in carefully until the engine starts to stumble then back out the screw 2 full turns. Repeat for the other screw.
5) If you have points, check point gap (0.017") and Dwell angle @ idle (26 to 30 degrees)
6) After the dwell angle has been checked, look at the base timing without the distributor vacuum advance. Should be around 6 degrees BTDC.
7) Inspect the choke, make sure it is letting enough air in at start-up and is opening up when the engine is fully warm.

Backfire is the result of incomplete combustion. This can be caused by too lean of fuel mixture, the timing is over advanced and/or the fuel mixture is too rich.

 

Unfortunately I don't have a vacuum gauge and I haven't been able to locate a dwell tach meter. Is there any way to check dwell without one? Its actually not running too bad at around 700 rpm (any lower and its starts to run rough and want to die). The back fire through the intake is mostly on start up. It has good throttle response in park and will idle all by itself, but when I try to set the high idle when its in gear, it will not run. Even with it cranked up to 2200 rpm in park, it dies immediately when put into gear.

 

Try your local auto parts store, they might lend you a vacuum gauge and/or dwell meter.

"Even with it cranked up to 2200 rpm in park, it dies immediately when put into gear."

Kinda sounds like a fuel delivery problem. You said in a previous post that you replaced the mechanical pump with an electric one. Maybe it is not delivering the correct amount of fuel.

Can you push it in neutral? I.e. make sure drive train is not locked up.

 

Ya, it rolls just fine. Orielly has tools you can barrow but only on their property so I would have to get a none running vehicle down and back up a really big hill the drive train is not locked up, it rolls just fine. I rebuilt the 4100 carb and I have a pdf file I found on another forum of the carb rebuild and tuning section of the old factory shop manual. That with the rebuild and tuning page that came with the rebuild kit is how I tuned it, but honestly I'm not the best with carbs so if there is a better source for tuning info on these I would love to get my hands on it. The fuel pump that I replaced the mechanical one with is rated for the same psi range and gph rating as the factory manual pump.

 

Autozone has tools that are free to use off property. You have to put down the deposit on the tool, then you get if back when you bring the tool back. That is assuming you don't break it. lol

 

Oh really, awesome. Sounds like that's where I'm going first thing in the morning. Thank you man

 

Sure thing!