Won't fire..... Help!

[Nowik35]

Gentlemen,
I know there's more threads on here about engines not starting then I want to read, but I figured someone can just pin point my issue. Sooo my rebuilt engine has a whole 25 miles on it maybe. Yesterday I drove it around town for an hour. Ran perfect. I mean starts within a second, ideal very healthy. Ran it at high speed low speed. Started half a dozen times yesterday. All perfect. Took it out this morning. Put the choke on, it turned over but ran VERY rough. And would not stabilize and died before I could fully open the choke. Tried everything, cranked it a dozen times, not even a single fire. Pumped the gas pedal few times and had choke off, and nothing no fire. Walked away out of frustration. Came back few hours later. Checked voltage at coil I get 7v. Tried it several times again, nothing. Spraid carb cleaner in the carb, no difference. Moved the distributor timing a hair, nothing. Moved itt back and it fired up. Idled for about 30sec. I ran to get my timing gun when I came back it died again. Wouldn't turn over again. I ended up killing the battery from all the tries. So I gave it a rest and I'll try something different tomorrow. I need help. I didn't think it's the fuel. I have a clear fuel filter at the carb and I can see fuel in it. Carb is brand new, coil brand new, starter solenoid new. I have NO CLUE why it won't fire up. Any ideas? What are the steps I should take to rule issues out????

 

[Lawndart]

Mine did something like that recently.
It has always started with one pedal pump and started right up.
It acted like yours - to the point I thought the timing chain jumped.
Long story, but turned out to be the battery - seems a cell was bad or something worst internally.
The battery was almost 8 years old, so there is that.
New battery and I have over 500 miles later - all well again.
Just a thought.

 

[gnpenning]

You need a fully charged battery before doing any testing.

For a it to run you need compression, spark, spark at the time, fuel, the right amount of fuel.

With that said, have you checked for spark, if so how?

Fuel in the filter doesn't mean it is being pumped to the carb.

Checking for spark is easy. Start with pulling the coil wire from the center of the distributor cap and put close to a good ground away from anything fuel related. Crank with a helper while watching. Or make sure it is in neutral, turn the key on and crank with a remote starter while watching. Spark or no spark determines what you do next. Color of spark is important so pay attention so you can tell us.

Pull the fuel line and put it in a container and crank motor while watching for volume and pressure. Keep away from anything that sparks. If course you have reinstalled the coil wire first.

 

[Nowik35]

So checked the center coil wire. Nice blushing white spark. Nice and healthy looking. I also forgot I owned a spark light checker. So I connected it to cylinder number one. And had my son Crank the engine. At first it lit up very irregularly and you could see every time it lit up the engine would fire one time but it wasn't continuous. After about 15-20 seconds cranking I told my son to let go of the ignition and the DAMN bronco stayed on. SOB started working fine. The light started lighting up very steadily and continuesly and I reved the engine a few times and it idled back down perfectly again. I turned it off and it fired back up on a dime....... What the hell guys I didn't do anything from yesterday to today. It just started working perfect again. But I'm not happy what if this happens again when I'm far from home? The only thing different from yesterday to today is I charged the battery over night. But I also think something is up with my distributor rotor, because I took the cap off and their was a lot of plastic shavings around the contact points. Thoughts????

 

[gnpenning]

While it good it running, it's always better to know what happened.

You shouldn't have any shavings in there. Make sure you have a quality cap and rotor and they are installed properly. Can you see where the shavings came from?

Next time it's running try wiggling ignition wires. And I don't mean spark plug wires. The low voltage wiring is a good place to start.

 

[Johnnyb]

Don't spray carb cleaner down the carb to try to diagnose a starting issue. Regular engine starting fluid is much better.
Agree with others, make sure the battery system is fully charged anytime you're trying to diagnose an issue.
Also agree with others about the shavings, start over with a new cap and rotor.
To be honest it sounds to me like a flooding issue, but you should have been able to smell gas or see black smoke out the pipes.

Good luck!
JB

 

[m_m70]

Make sure you have a quality cap and rotor and they are installed properly

I had a rotor that hit the plastic on the cap. Heard it right off the bat so changed out before even driving it. Also, years ago, I had the shear pin that holds the dizzy gear on shear off. timing was all over the place "when" it ran. Easy to check that.

 

[Nowik35]

Update..... It was the distributor. I bought a new one (match set with cap and rotor). Fired right up like new. Man brand new rebuild and I lost count how many"new" parts I had to replace to get a reliable running bronco.

 

[m_m70]

Update..... It was the distributor. I bought a new one (match set with cap and rotor)

So I may have missed it but was your distributor stock?? Points or electronic ignition?? Just curious as replacing the whole distributor actually replaced quite a few things all at once that could have been the problem.

 

[Nowik35]

Yes it was stock, points. It was an autolite replacement but where I think I messed up is I bought the distributor, cap, and rotor all separately. And I think my rotor was a tad too big and was rubbing the cap as it spun . Causing all kinds of issues, from Miss firing, not firing at all, and somewhere in between. So I bought a carquest distributor with a matching cap and rotor. Now works perfect just road around for an hour. No issues

 

[m_m70]

Yes it was stock, points. It was an autolite replacement but where I think I messed up is I bought the distributor, cap, and rotor all separately. And I think my rotor was a tad too big and was rubbing the cap as it spun . Causing all kinds of issues, from Miss firing, not firing at all, and somewhere in between. So I bought a carquest distributor with a matching cap and rotor. Now works perfect just road around for an hour. No issues

gotcha, glad you're up and running again!