350 Going Boom, Won't Start

Got everything lined up last night but it got too late to try and fire it up. One thing I noticed is that while the distributor cap isn't cracked and looks to be in good shape, if I grab it I can rock it back and forth fairly easily and also pick it up off of the distributor base by a 1/4" or so. This is all while it's "clamped" down with the two screws.

This means I need a new cap right?

 

Cap is held on by spring loaded screws . so enuff force will make it move like described. There is a line up tab in cap that matches cutout in housing the go together. That lines up cap. If its in they should be good.

 

I had the cap lined up with the tab in the housing but even so it seems a little loose to me. Maye the spring loaded screws are worn?

Maye I'm worrying about nothing?

 

that type of looseness could contribute to the popping and not running.
Hard to say over the net.

 

Sounds too loose to me I would replace the cap and rotor.

 

10-4!!

For a cheap part like that I might as well. Will be picking it up on the way home today and seeing if this thing fires!

Thanks for answering all my little questions guys.

 

Any luck getting her going?

 

I wasn't able to leave work in time yesterday and today I have welding class from 6 to 9, so the car is just sitting there waiting for me to try . . . it's killing me haha! :ball: I wasn't even able to get to the auto parts store to pick up my damn distributor cap and rotor yet.

Friday I will leave work early and try it out! I'm guessing I'm getting my hopes up for nothing, but if it runs without a new timing chain I will be one happy camper.

I think I'm going to buy a new condenser when I get to the store as well. Is this hard to replace? I've never really messed with the guts of a points distributor.

 

I'm doing some pricing and found that:

Accel 8104 Points and Condenser set - $43
Accell Cap and Rotor Set - $31

Total $74 (Prices from Autozone, Summit would be cheaper but I want to try firing the car tomorrow, remember I only have a month to get it running).

Should I not just spend the extra $90 and get the HEI from TA? I want to swap to HEI at some point anyways regardless if I do the timing chain or not. I just feel like spending $$ on a distributor that I plan to replace anyways seems like a waste. Do it once, do it right?

What do you all think?

 

Isn't a regular points and condensor kit $10?
No need for spendy stuff on a mild engine.

My suggestion to "line up the pole pcs." was assuming you had HEI.
With points, you would orient them to "just open" at 10* BTDC (or ?).
You can rotate against the advance to see where that point is.

HEI is a good plan, maybe buy an inexpensive points kit to see it run first.

 

Ok I'm a little confused, so after I lined up the balancer to 10 BTDC, I dropped in the distributor and "walked" to oil pump so that the rotor was pointing at the #1 terminal on the cap. Should I have also been paying attention to the position of the points at the same time?

And ok, I will look to buy the cheap stuff!

 

If you go swapping too many new parts and it still won't start you will still not know what the real problem is. If you replace the distributor and it doesn't go, is because of a misaligned distributor, a defective part, bad timing still.. (see what I mean)?

Align the distributor as planned, pull a plug wire, crank the engine (not to start but to check for a good spark). If it looks good
try and start it. If you can take a video of you trying to start it. It may help solving your problem.

 

Got it, I will try and shoot a video. I have a GoPro type camera laying around somewhere that I've never used.

To check for spark I pull a plug and reconnect the wire, then ground the threads of the plug on the block right?

Then I just need someone to crank at that point . . .

 

What i used to do was find a screw driver that would fit into the end of the wire and then lay it on the inner fender.

 

So you have to have the shaft of the screwdriver touch the inner fender or do you want a gap? This makes a spark between the screw driver and the fender?

 

gotta leave a small gap.

 

Ok I will give it a try!

 

Or take an extra plug (in decent shape) and lay it (plug body or threads-whatever) on a clean ground, with the gap facing so that you can see it while you reach in to crank it.
On top the master cylinder should work, too.

 

Easy! Thanks for the tip.

 

Am I looking for a particular color of spark or just any spark at all?