hey HGP, good points (I read your old post so I know you have been where I am now) I will follow that. I don't know what you mean by dizzy?? The dis. is new, I just changed the rotor, the points have 5k on them, all the wires have been check, connections cleaned as needed, etc.

you better have confidence on Always knowing how to get a spark one way or the other.

pelicantalk

dizzy = ignition distributor

thanks Ronnie!

heading out to the car in a few minutes, battery on the charger now.

well, still not running. BUT! ;-) I am still swinging! I found that the plugs and the points were gap'd too wide. I have fixed that. I left the plugs out in favor of letting the car "breath" as per Grady. Tomorrow I will static time the engine and then try the starter fluid again. I appreciate everyone's support.

hey guys, I woke up this morning at 4:30 with my brain thinking about all this stuff! I am excited to get home later again see if we can get her running. The quote of the day is:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who's face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
President Theodore Roosevelt
April 23, 1910

Well said.

If you have the dist out of the car to set static timing, that would be a good time to install the Optical conversion. It is much easier to do this installation with the dist. out of the car.

I have no plans to remove the dist from the car. Can I not static time it (since I don't think it is that far off) with it in the car? I plan on following Warren's directions to the letter...

Yes, you can set timing without removing the dist. The same procedure is used if the dist stays in the car or was removed.

it's RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone. Grady your tip about leaving the plugs out worked! Warren, the pics were golden and the instructions were, ahh, "James proof" ;-)

Gotta jam, need to drive and don't want to let it run out of fuel

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That's great to hear. Is this the new ignition running? Now that it runs you may want to plug the old one in to see if that was the problem. Of course, drive it a bit first.

I have not changed the points to electronic yet. I did take my time and set the points EXACTLY right. As well as the static time. I didn't even need much of the starter fluid.

I appreciate all of you fellas, especially for not flamming me for all the novice questions. Next step is to get the timing set with the light, another new thing to me but I feel confident about it now :-D

didn't you convert to the Permatune system with the built in coil?

The timing will be a piece of cake now. Just make sure the inductive pickup on points the correct direction on the plug wire. Match up the arrow and you will be fine. I usually pull 12V from the 3 fuse holder on the rear console and ground at the stud by the coil.

No novice questions here. not asking the question just leads to more problems.

Good call on NOT changing yet. NOW when yu change, you will KNOW if you screwed up putting the optical parts in...
Ask me how I know!~

I do like my CRane optical trigger and MSD setup

yeah I have that Jamie. Could you expand a bit on how to time it again? I know where to get power and ground, its that second point you made that I missed, thanks.

I hear ya Jake!

Sure, I am assuming your new timing light has an inducting pickup. This will be a clamp like thing on the third (not power or ground) wire from the light. This works by a coil of wire that converts the pulse of voltage through the spark plug wire into a trigger which fires the light. When the plug fires, the light strobes.

This inductive pickup usually has a clamp side that slides back opening the hole in the pickup. This coil is also directional so you must orient it correctly. There should be an arrow on the clamp that points in the direction of spark travel. This arrow will point down the plug wire towards the plug. Place this clamp on the #1 plug wire.

When the engine is running and the power and ground connected the lamp should fire. Careful with the wires near the fan. aim the light at the lower edge of teh fan housing where it meets the case. There should be a mark there. when the light fires you should see some marks on the crank pulley which is directly below. loosen the dist fixing bolt just slightly.

When you rotate the dist, the relation between the rotor/cap and the crank shaft are changed. This causes the trigger to move in an advance or retard manner. Advance is when the plug fires before the piston reaches top dead center in the cylinder. Retard is when the plug fires after the piston reaches TDC.

You will have to find the timing specs for your engine. They should be on a plaque on the fan shroud strap. I usually set my engine to 30 BTDC at 6K rpm.

Look at the timing marks on the pulley. There should be 4. IIRC, These will be 5 ATDC, TDC, 15 and 25 BTDC, but each pulley is different. Use the marks to set the timing spec. Just rotate the dist while the light is flashing and line up the lights for a given engine speed.

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Glad to hear that she is back and running! Do you have ant current pics on the car?

Joe, you KILL ME dude! Beers are on YOU when I am in LA next! No pics yet, I need to get a new DC. Now, quick breakin me ballz man! ;-)

thanks Jamie, now I can do that for the first time with those clear instructions. Last time I did points was in HS so this has all been a great refresh. My Dad is a retired UAL mechanic who would always finish jobs for me, see what happened!

beer are definetly on me next time. El Carmens acalling you! Speaking of, I need to get ready. We are having a girlfreind of mines party there tonite. They are all smoking! I'll send you pics of what you missed tomorrow. Glad to hear that things are alright with the car...

BTW
Breakin ballz is in my nature. Its the NY in me:)

I know I know I know dude, you ARE a New Yorker! Cool, send the pics. I hope I'll make one of these parties someday.

Well. Tyson and I just got home. We had a crazy night. A couple of guys decided that our girls where up for grabs. They thought wrong! I have a couple of scratches on my neck from the bouncer grabbing me but I think that that that was the lighter part of it. You should have seen Tyson scrap. It was all $hits and giggles. Wish you were here.

damn bro. I was wondering why he didnt email me the timing info! Too funny. It was probably the New Yorker in you that started it!

UPDATE

Car is timed and running great! Thanks Jamie! Thanks Tyson! Now, the tach quit working. I think I might need a newer take to work with this CD/Coil unit. Any ideas on that? Does anyone have a spare they can send me to check out?

Thanks

James

James, I bet your tach wire is disconnected. On the side of the dist is the clip that the points wire plugs into (black). There should be a double sided Faston clip and a second (black/purple) wire plugs into as well. This is the tach trigger wire.

nope, checked connections and it is wired correctly. I will pull back the tape and see if I have a bad splice. I recall someplace in the directions for the CD/Coil something about the tach so I will check those.

James check everything. If you blew the tach I will send you one.

It seems that a the wire was rubbing or somehow became loose, it took me about 30 minutes but I found it. Thanks Joe. Have a good weekend.

Good deal. Glad you found it. Talk to you soon.

Just stumbled across this post, and at the risk of dredging up an old thread without any new technical input, I just had to mention that a friend of mine has this entire quote (in the slightly edited form above) tattoed on his back, below a drawing of the Last Supper, and various other things. A pic of him made the front page of the local news rag here last week.

http://members.rennlist.com/tweedt/jernigan.jpg

TT