Need help, 69 wont start

[Rev]

Originally Posted by Childs

Info: 69 FB 302 2bbl Holley 4412 carb dual point dist

I working on my uncle's 69 fastback and its a mess. Nothing on it is stock, so the repair manuals are of little use. I got it running for a bit, then another uncle wanted to check the timing and he fooled with the distributer position and it would not start again. He then pulled out the distributer and supposedly realigned it, and now I'm thinking we're screwed. I turned the crank manually, and aligned up TDC with piston 1, and made sure each revolution (according to the rotor) matched up with TDC, but it still won't fire. I'm getting spark, but its only once in awhile when the spark tester is hooked up to piston 1. Its a dual point distributor, so I don't know if this is the correct behavior or not. It has a Holley 4412 2bbl carb, and there is fuel in the bowl so I'm thinking fuel wise its fine. Replaced the points and condenser, distributer wire, cap, rotor, ignition coil, and even the starter solenoid and voltage regulator.

Now, I'm thinking its just so out of whack timing wise that its not going to fire reliably. Is there anything I can do to make sure the timing is correct when the car won't start? I have the Haynes, Chilton, and Factory manual, and they only deal with timing when the car runs.

Also, the ignition coil measures about 5.6V when "-" is grounded and "+" is going straight to the battery. I've read that it should be 7-11v. The original coil, replaced coil, and brand new coil all read about 5.6v, so I'm wondering since the distributer isn't stock I need a special coil or something? When its normally hooked up, I have ignition running to "+", distributer wire and tach wire running to "-", and I noticed something with the test light. Test light lights up bright without distributer wire and tach connected to "-", but when they are its noticeably dimmer. Could this be an issue too?

There's a short somewhere. You should have at least 8-9 volts to the coil even when the resistence wire is functioning . When cold, you should get the full 12V to the coil during start up. be sure you have the polarity right to the coil.

Check to make sure you have the tdc center mark on the balancer near the pointer when you get the compression pop at the #1 spark plug hole. The rotor in the distributor shoud be pointing at the #1 terminal on the cap.

Pump the gas a few times to see gas sqirting into the carb from the accelerator punp. If all that is correct, it should at least fire. Don't pump too much gas into the carb. You don't want an intake backfire and a resulting engine fire.

Rev

[Childs]

Thanks Rev. I thought it might be a short last weekend, so I hooked up just the jumper wire running from the battery to + on the coil and the distributor wire running to - on the coil, and I got the same reading on the multimeter. I just wasn't sure if that reading was normal.

The timing may be off by one position as well, as that uncle told me the rotor should be pointing to just before piston 1.

I do get gas in the carb when I pump the gas or manually do it at the carb, so at least thats good!