Engine won't start with spark to all plugs

J

JImmyJambo

New member
Hello people,

let me start off by introducing myself. My name is jimmy from elizabethtown, pa. I have a '78 Scout II/345 with a 4 bbl/727/ disks up front with drums on the back.

So now for my situation. I recently had the Scout running with the 2 bbl on then swapped in the 4 bbl. Engine started and sounded good. To give it a little tune up, I swapped wires and plugs and now it doesn't even attempt to start. I reverified spark at all 8 plugs and looks good. I rechecked timing off of #8 ( nothing), swapped back to the old plugs and wires ( nothing), replaced the coil ( nothing), verified fuel, rechecked timing and even went back to the old coil.

Any ideas on what I am missing? Any input is appreciated. Thanks.
 
Hello jimmy, another pennsylvanian! I'm originally from the landisville, mountville area in west hempfield twp.

I'd reckon if it ran before the plug wire swap, and didn't after the swap; you May have the order of the wires mixed. Verify tdc on #8 and the timing Mark on the crank pulley lined up with the timing gear cover index. Then check that the plug wires go the right cylinder as per the firing order, 18436572. I'd also pull a plug or two to see if they got wet fouled from cranking a lot.
 
Did both of those things several times over. A buddy just told me that the dist. Condensor can mess with the pickup coil. Does this sound right?
 
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If you are running either of two electronic ignition systems that were oem, those use no condenser in the ignitions system whatsoever.

You "May" have a condenser mounted on the coil retainer bracket, that is for supressing rfi for radio noise only and May be tossed away. It has nothing to do with the ignition system as far as functionality unless it goes into a "short-to-ground" condition which will reduce voltage to the coil. Remove the lead from the coil terminal and cut the wire off, that eliminates the rfi capacitor.

If it had spark before installing new plug cables and not it has spark but won;t run, the plug cables are not installed in the correct firing order. Pull 'em all out of the distributor cap sockets and start wiring from scratch, use this stickee for a guide:

http://www.forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/ignition-tech/4130-installing-distributor.html
 
I have double checked and rechecked the wires and their sequence. Haven't had a chance to disconnect the condensor which is mounted on the coil. I have also read over the stickee you linked Mike.
 
Jimmy:
well, I hate to sound like a broken record but I'll lust let you know what did it for me when I went crazy last year with all the same things you just wrote about.
I had spark, plugs looked good, tried a different coil, re-double and triple checked the plug wires & it would not start. Then I started asking my gearhead friends in the neighborhood and they said all the things greg and mayben just said.
So eventually we realized the wires were in the correct order, but off by one position, I had rotated the distributor rotated, trying to get it to start, so the wires looked like they were in the correct position, but they were not. I advanced the wires one position around the distributor and it fired right up.
Good luck.
Nick
 
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