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engine wont start

bigbadchev84

bigbadchev84

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Hermiston, Oregon
Ok, I got a real headscratcher here. My 67' has a 400sbc in it. The thing has ran like a top, I dont drive it a whole lot, maybe once or twice a month. I hoped in it to move it the other day and it just cranked and cranked. I was in a hurry so I grabbed the dodge and went to work.

I have put it off for a while now and finally got back to it, Same thing just cranks, I shot some ether in it and nothing. It does crank faster/easier if i have the gas pedel pushed down. I figured it was a bad module, threw a spare in I had, nothing. Changed out the cap/coil with a known good one, nothing.

At this point I pulled the one out of my Jimmy(a running one) and threw it in there, put power to the cap straight from the battery and cranked, nothing. It dosent even kick or sputter. I checked the grounds and they are new cables and clean.

I just threw in new plugs and still nothing

Where do I go from here?
 
motor needs some basic things to fire

spark
fuel
timing
compression

Pull a plug and have someone crank it and see if its getting spark. if it is try shooting some starting fluid down the carb, or pour a little fuel.
 
Seeing as how the thing ran great the last time i parked it I cant see it losing compression or timing? I have shot it with starting fluid, that should rule out a fuel problem, and have swapped out the whole dizzy with one out of a running truck. I have ran a wire straight to the cap to the battery and still nothing.
 
Coil? I'm not sure if you have the internal cap coil, or external coil.

I'd do what I could to see if that thing is actually sparking or not though. Using ether I would say definitely rules out a fuel problem.

Good luck,
Clay
 
Does it still have points or is it hei?

Check the battery voltage. After sitting, maybe it isn't high enough to charge the coil which needs a full 12V.

-Brian
 
Well you said you replaced the dizzy, are you sure you have it at TDC on the correct stroke? When I put my motor in I had everything marked for TDC and it turned out I had put it to the exhaust stroke on cylinder 1, and my dist was 180* off after a compression test and taking the #1 plug out. Just a thought.
 
obviously it's a no spark issue.. pull a plug wire, stick a screwdriver in it, hold it near a grd and crank to verify..

you need to check 2 things... 12v to the pos side of the coil, and a signal back out of the dizzy to the neg side...
 
It is an HEI dizzy, I will check spark again with the wife cranking later. I pulled the old dizzy out and put the other one in just like the old one. I dont see it losing timing just sitting there. But I will verify that as well.

If it was a fuel problem, wouldnt it fire on starting fluid?
 
I think that the starter fluid not working says its not getting spark as said before. Somethings fishy:crazy:. Maybe a bad ground somewhere?? Maybe some chorosion somewhere:dunno:
 
yes.... i'm assuming it's a carb... just work the throttle with the truck off and see if it's squirting fuel...

you more than likely aren't getting 12v to the dizzy... even if the dizzy is off, 180 out, doing handsprings, you should still have an occasional cylinder trying to fire.... so that means you've got no signal out of the dizzy, if the module is known good, it's more than likely a 12v feed issue...
 
A quickie test for HEI is to put a test light between the tach terminal in the cap and cround and crank it over--if the module and pick up coil are good it willmake the test light blink on and off while cranking...dont do this for too long as it can damage the module,5 seconds is long enough--.

I had a truck a friend tuned up one day and it refused to start--spent most of an afternoon re-checking every thing he replaced,I figured he screwed the firing order up,but all the wires were on the correct cylinders...he had replaced plugs,cap,rotor and wires,..found no problems with them--then he says "oh yeah,I put a new coil in too"--so I took off the cover in the dizzy cap and found out the metal ground strap was missing--when I asked if he took off a bent looking metal thing he just went "huh"?...no,I didn't see anything like that..I found it still stuck to the old cap,which was tossed in the bed,installed it,and it fired right up...

I've seen some older trucks with HEI that would flood and foul the plugs out,and you could crank it all day long and they refused to even fart!--put 8 new plugs in ,and it'll fire up instantly...I had a 305 with a bad choke pull off that did this repeatedly!--if you didn't wind it up as soon as it started and keep it idling fast,it would go "chig-chug-chug" until it loaded up the plugs so bad they wouldn't fire ever again--only a few times was I able to restart it after letting it sit overnight without having to put new plugs in it..

If you have a computer I'd be checking the ECM fuse also....
 
no computer. Just a simple 400sbc with HEI

Just checked spark with a grounded plug, Good and strong. Brought the balancer to tdc and dizzy was right there by the #1 terminal, another shot of starting fluid and nothing, pulled the cover and all rockers are moving like they should be. My brother is bringing back my compression tester so I can get a reading on that.
 
Just checked compression, they are all between 125-135psi and double checked tdc with my finger over the hole, and the balancer is right there on the mark as well.

Got a good purple/blue spark on a grounded plus as well. Also tried some gas down the carb as well. Not even a hiccup. Also tried moving the dizzy back and forth while cranking and it didnt even try to fire.
 
Check the plugs when you pull them. If you got spark, and starting fluid don't do it, then ether you have no compression, which I seriously doubt, or you are flooded beyond belief.

The only way I can think of for an engine that had been running to lose compression would be if the timing chain broke.
But then you would not have spark.

I suppose it would be possible for the crank to break between the timing gear and the first connecting rod, but you need to look around for Rod Serling because you are definitely in the Twilight Zone....

Just pretty much has to be flooded.

Hold the gas pedal to the floor, after making sure the choke is open, and let her crank for a little while to see if it clears out.
 
yup... also pull a plug again, put it back in the plug wire, hold the threads to a grd and check to make sure the plug is actually sparking...
 
Well I got it, Feel like an idiot for not actually checking, but figured the starting fluid would have let it fire, or the gas I dumped down the carb.

Pulled the Edelbrock off the jimmy and stuck it on the 67' I didnt think about it at the time, but still have the hardline going into the quadrajet. I hit the pedal and cranked it, she fired right up. But there was no fuel spraying out of the old quadrajet fuelline thank god, could have been a bad oversight.

So thanks all for the help and sorry I drug this out like I did, Should have checked it to begin with, but figured the starting fluid would have made it fire. It has always taken a few cranks to get it to fire up, always figured it was from sitting for so long and losing prime. Must have been going out for a while now.

I have been leaning towards a worn out torque converter since it dont have much go from about 55mph up, might have been the pump this whole time.
 
that makes sense. You figure a little gas in the carb and it would fire though. Would have stumped me too.
 
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