The time finally came today to start my new motor. It didn't go as well I would have liked however. So far I have not been able to get her to start, here is what's going on.

I am getting fuel to the carb, I am getting compression, but I am not getting a good spark to start this thing up. I pulled the #1 plug and grounded it to the head and I get no spark. The only plug that I got spark to sometimes was the number 5 one. I say sometimes because it is hit or miss, sometimes when I try it it sparks, and sometimes it doesn't. My battery is brand new and fully charged, I am getting power to my new coil, new cap, rotor, and wires. The motor turns over strong but does not fire up due to this lack of spark. Could it be the ballast resister that is causing all this trouble? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Check the point gap, or the clearence form the reluctor to pickup coil, if electronic ign. Also try to wiggle the distributer shaft side ways. If there is too much wiggle the gap will change from cyl to cyl, and couuld get you intermittant spark.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Thanks Charrlie, I did what you suggested and everything checks out ok. I still don't have a good spark.

Check your distributor cap and verify that it is seating properly on the housing. I once got a new cap that would not seat on one side.

You might also have the distributor installed slightly off. Slant distributors can be a pain at times.

Were the plug wires pre-cut? Check out the secondary coil wire to make sure the center conductor is making contact with the terminal and that the terminals are secure in the coil and distributor.

Also check for proper polarity of the coil primary wires.

The distributor cap seems to be seating properly and the plug wires are pre cut. All the wires are making good contact with the plugs and the cap. I get a good spark when I ground the coil wire but I don't get it to the plugs. I tried two sets of wires so far and I get the same result. Would the distributor being installed slightly off cause no spark like this?

Try installing a rotor in the distributor!

Or if there is a rotor in it, try a different one.

I just got back from the auto parts store and I got a new rotor and ballast resister. I have spark now but I haven't gotten it to start yet. I think the battery might be low because it is not cranking as well as it was before. So I will charge it up and try again. Thanks for all the ideas so far

Your timing has to be within a 20 degree window at the crank for it to start. Since the distributor travels half as fast as the crank, that means 10 degrees at the dist. It can be hard to find this at first. To make things more confusing, a slant will sputter and kind of half run, if the distributor is 180 degrees off. That is, if you line the rotor up with cap wire number one when the timing mark is a TDC, it might be TDC on the exhaust stroke. This will still try to start and run, and lead you to believe you are on the right track, when you are actually as far off as possible. Ask me how I know this. Try to assess true TDC on the intake stroke. You have 99.9 percent of the work done, so don;t get dicouraged. We will wait for the good news.

update:

I still have not fired the engine up as of yet. I have spark, compression, and fuel reaching the carb so I should be good to go, but I'm not. At some points when I mess with the timing by turning the distributor it kicks over for a second, but it never fires. Can my distributor still be a tooth off? I set it at tdc on the compression stroke by setting up a whistle in the #1 spark plug hole and listening for compression, so I know I am close. One thing I did notice that leads me to beleive that I'm a tooth off is that when I ground the #1 plug and turn the distributor I don't get a spark. But I have grounded each plug and cranked the motor over and they spark very well. Back to work, this thing has to start sometime.

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73' Duster 225
<img src="http://longrod.moparpages.com/enginedone.JPG" width=200>

Yes, I think you are a tooth off. I've been there and done that.

Are you points or EI?

If you're EI, pull the distributor, use a multi meter and put the probes in the pigtail, set it to 'ohms' and rotate the shaft you should see a fluctuation as the 'teeth' pass the pickup from 150 ohms to 900 ohms...if the pattern is low or very 'intermittent', I'd just get another distributor or get another pickup plate and replace it. The pickup can go bad from any number of things/abuses and cause intermittent ignition problems like you might be getting.

After that if all is well, I usually put my pinkie finger in the hole to get the engine to TDC, pull the oil cap on your valve cover and check the position of your valves (overlap), install the distributor at TDC (that way you don't get any knock during break in, especially if your gas is oxygenated/ethanol enriched)...

Sounds like you're close enough to want to get out and 'push'

-D.Idiot

Thanks DI, I'm gonna go ahead and try that. I also should mention that every once in a while I do get a spurt of gas out of my carb like a backfire.

Just curious about what carb you're using and how it's set-up?

Things I notice like on my Hyperpak the plenum is so big, and the vaccuum draw with the short overlap cam works ok with the throttle plates 'tipped' open a smidge to let some idle air in on a 600 cfm Holley, but with the 390cfm Holley I had to drill holes in the plates for idle air or it would fire then die right out....

Maybe we're combatting a few 'pre-fire' gremlin's in your new build up like carb settings being 'close' but not that close, and a small problem with the ignition system that just compounds things.

The good thing is we're trying to help you 'stack the deck' for a successful fire up! This is a long rod motor, isn't it? If so, I wonder is Slantzilla has a few pointers on carb setup that might be 'more correct'...

-D.Idiot

Yes it is a long rod setup. The carb is a 500 cfm edelbrock and I haven't changed any of the settings yet. I installed it as is right out of the box. Plus the more I look at this the more I think it's an electrical issue. Here is what's going on electrically.

I used a timing light while cranking the engine over and it did nothing. I tried grounding the #1 plug and turning the distributor while at tdc compression and I get no spark. Although, when I ground a plug and bump over the starter with the key I get a spark to the plug but, only when I release the key. I can crank the engine over for 5 seconds and not get a spark until I release the key. When I try to start the car it only attempts to kick over the second I release the key. Kinda weird and I don't understand it. Am I making any sense?

what you describe is usually the case with a dual ballast resistor going bad....

is it new?

-D.Idiot