distributor help please

[rridenour]

I just replaced my distributor, followed the instructions to a "T" and now I am not getting any fire. Any ideas on what to do next? I have a ND distributor BTW. Also this is a new distributor I replaced it with

 

Thanks in advance

[beataru]

If I am understanding this correctly, you have spark but it wont fire up right? Then either your 180 off, or just a tooth.

Did you match the notch on the disty with the one on the engine?

oh and not to say that your stupid or anything, check your plug wires and make sure they are in the correct spots before doing the above, Ive seen it happen alot, thankfully not to me.

[daeron]

If I am understanding this correctly, you have spark but it wont fire up right? Then either your 180 off, or just a tooth.

Did you match the notch on the disty with the one on the engine?

oh and not to say that your stupid or anything, check your plug wires and make sure they are in the correct spots before doing the above, Ive seen it happen alot, thankfully not to me.

 

 

if you are 180 off, taking each spark plug wire and moving it two spaces (180 degrees) should rectify the problem.

 

Take the spark plug out of the drivers side front cylinder. put your finger on it and slowly rotate the engine forwards until you feel pressure, air being forced out of the spark plug hole. continue to rotate the crankshaft until that piston is at its top dead center. Take the distributor cap off. See the rotor, and note what clock position it is at (high noon, 3 o clock, etc) Put your disty cap back on so that the terminal going to the #1 spark plug is touching (or very very near touching) the rotor.

 

now you are no longer 180 off.. or you never were in the first place, if the rotor is already in the right spot. might still be off a tooth, but thats all the help i can give you.

[rridenour]

I wish I had had spark. I set the rotor button to TDC on the flywheel and pulled the distributor, put the new one in and do not have spark fire or anything from the distributor

[mrroot]

You've prolly already checked everything, but here's a quick list to make sure:

 

1) Make sure your coil is good - check resistances and what not on it, or replace with a known good unit.

2) Make sure the connections to the coil are tight, and make sure the coil casing is clean and not grounding out somewhere.

3) If you're worried about the disty being the problem, you can do a spark test with the coil wire ( the one plugged into the center ) and a good ground, just like you would with a spark plug wire and ground. Obviously, if you get spark, there's something wrong with the cap/rotor.

4) Your amplifier could be bad/going out. This is the unit attached underneath the coil - don't know the check procedures off the top of my head, but replacing with known good would be a quick test if you have a spare.

5) If you have an rpm gauge, you can use it to make sure the ECU is pulsing the coil properly by hooking it up and verifying you're seeing cranking RPM. This can help enormously to isolate the problem as before or after the ECU.

6) All wires connected to the new disty?

 

Just for the information in the thread, how are you checking for spark exactly?

 

Best of luck and let us know..

[rridenour]

As far as coil goes it was good before I started the job (could something in the new one caused it to not work anymore?) I did disconnect the batterry before I started the whole job. and my connections are tight on the coil. The reason I had to change the distributor out was the vacuum advance was bad and nobody would sell me just the part so i bought the whole unit. and the cap and rotor was replaced a month ago and they both have little wear. now as far as a spark test you say ground the coil wire on the distributor end and see if it causes a spark? We tried testing the plug wires. I know I am at TDC now. I will check resistance on the coil though and who knows maybe it died too.

 

Thanks for the help

[Gloyale]

Check to make sure there is a gap between the inductive pickup magnet and rotor pieces inside the disty. If it is a new disty it should have been set but check it. If your coil was good before, it seems as though you have no pulse from disty to trigger coil firing. Did you get an excact replacement disty? If you had a Hitachi and are replaceing with ND or vice-versa you may be having probs. People say they interchange but I think one requires a resitor. Or each requires a different resitor. something of that nature.

[Cougar]

I would check to see if you have voltage on the minus side of the coil with the ignition ON. You should see around 12 volts. If you have voltage there then put one of the plugwires in place of the coilwire in the coil. Place a plug in the other end of the wire and ground the plug to the engine. With the ignition on, try grounding the minus side of the coil real briefly with a wire tied to ground. Hold on to the insulation of the wire and not the bare end when doing this. You should see a spark on the plug if the coil is ok. The trouble is with the new disty somehow. Possibly the pickup inside.

[rridenour]

Thanks for all the ideas. Yes, I have a ND coil and ND distributor (new), I will check the magnet gap. and pick up a multimeter tonight and check it all out. I am starting to lean toward bad new part (not the first time this thing has happened, unfotunately this is not something they could test before I left the store)