It Cranks

[JIPJOBXX]

Joe have you tried to start the engine???? As I think most people think that you might be in that process but you were more concerned with the oil pressure? right?

I know how you feel about all this mechanical talk but its a no brainier to see if you have all the components to get your car up and running.

Let us know if you have electricity to your points! And then do that coil test. If you have all of that than put all the plug wires back in the rotor and of course like someone here mentioned turn the engine over and see that the little points are moving up and down with a little gap between on the rotor shaft. After that install rotor and install the cap and wires. I would just get the engine to fire and not worry about all the finer stuff. Oh yes put some gas in the carburetor befor you start to crank on the engine as these systems seem to take quite a while to get the fuel up and into the carburetor from the main gas line.

Guys lets make this as simple as possible for our friend Joe as he is trying his best and needs our help.

[JIPJOBXX]

Joe they make a neat little tool that is lights up when you install between the plug wire and the spark plug. It is cheap and if you go down to a car parts store you can buy one of these things and see visually that your gettting spark to the plugs. Cool little toy and really works (Not expensive also!)

[Joe Flanagan]

OK, I solved the oil pressure issue. I managed to hook up the pressure gauge Don recommended and cranked the engine. The battery was really weak and it only gave a few pitiful cranks but the needle shot up to ten before the battery finally died. So my dash gauge is either not functioning or won't read anything below a certain point. I think I've had pressure all along and when I get the thing running it will be fine.

My local Auto Zone happened to have a 6 volt coil in stock so I decided to go ahead and get it. Installed it and cranked. No spark from the coil. I removed the distributor cap and separated the points as Jon and and others suggested. I got a spark at the points and also one at the end of the coil wire. Nice strong spark. I went inside to do something and came back out to find smoke coming out of the distibutor. Disconnected the battery. Checked out the distributor and didn't see anything burned or damaged. I tried the test again, separating the points to see if there's a spark, and nothing. No spark at the points now and no spark at the coil wire either.

I have the hot to the coil hooked up to the battery side of the solenoid so it's always hot. I don't leave it like this, I disconnect the battery if I'm not going to be cranking it. But when I went into the house, there was current running to the coil straight from the battery. Could that burn the points or condenser up?

[JIPJOBXX]

Joe you probably burnt your points by leaving that hot wire on in place. Oh well life lessons are sometime hard to learn. But check out your points and see if they are burnt. Guess I should have said one more thing when using a 12 volt battery never leave anything hooked up after you crank it with a 12 volt wire. Let everything cool down and check your wires inside your distributor and see if you fried any? Dam I wish i would have mentioned that but of course I kind of thought you might be using your six volt battery. Even with a good six volt battery in place you never leave the key on or a temporary wire to your coil as if the points are closed (Touching) your grounding the battery and that will cause the coil to heat up and points to burn.

[Don Coatney]

Glad you got oil pressure. Leaving the coil energized is not a good idea. You may have fried your points, condenser, and possibly your new coil. If you have your ignition coil hard wired to a "hot" terminal how would you kill your engine should it start? Is your generator wired in to the system? If it is then disconnecting the battery will not kill the engine. You should wire a toggle switch to the coil or use a jumper wire with alligator clips.

[Joe Flanagan]

Jon,

I was using the six-volt. Probably the best thing to do is get new points and condensor for it and see where it goes from there. Did get a good spark though.

[Young Ed]

Joe are you using the original hardline from the gauge to the engine? If so check it for blockage. Thats the only thing I've ever heard of going funky with the oil pressure gauges. They are pretty tough.

[JIPJOBXX]

Glad to hear you were using your 6 volt battery. How hot was your coil? I would just check the points first and then do that point test again with the coil wire. No ust in buying another coil if the one you still have is working. Sorry to hear about all your problems and Don is right about that cut-oft switch or something like that as if you did get your engine started how would you turn it oft?

[Joe Flanagan]

Don,

The generator is not wired into the system. In the diagram Greg posted, he did have a switch present so you could shut off the coil. I skipped that because I figured I could disconnect the battery to shut it down. Today I was not trying to start it, just trying to see if I could get a spark. But now I see why the switch should be there and I know I screwed up by leaving it hot. I have a push button switch to energize the starter, I will just install a toggle switch or something to control the coil. The points don't look burned but they don't make a spark, either.

[Don Coatney]

Try your old coil again.

[Joe Flanagan]

I'll do that. It will be a couple of days before I can get back to it. Thanks for the help.

[Rollie���]

Joe-

The fitting should have pipe thread to go into the block, and a flare fitting for the oil line.

If this was missing, the pressure would have escaped and given you a false reading.

If you want to pre-pressurize the oil system, you can use a garden sprayer adapted to fit the oil galley with a pipe fitting nipple on the sprayer hose. Then fill the sprayer with oil, and pump it up. This will force oil into the oil galley, and the bearings.

Since the oil pump can't be easily removed from the engine because of the frame interference, using a spare pump without the gear to pressurize the system won't work without lots of trouble. And, as has already been mentioned, you can't spin the oil pump with a drill if it has the gear in place as it is connected to the cam.

I didn't pre-pressurize my engine before startup, and did not have any issues...

Pete

I'm still 3 steps behind Joe

While cranking I'm not getting any visible oil to pump to the filter, and this is after bench packing the pump with Vaseline and then repacking the installed pump twice with the cover off. Don't want to crank too much without oil and externally priming the oil system sounds like a great idea. What garden sprayer do you speak of Pete?

[aero3113]

Rollie, I have seen in many threads and have seen myself that it does take a while to crank and get oil pressure for the first time.

[blueskies]

What garden sprayer do you speak of Pete?

Rollie-

You should be able to pick up an inexpensive weed sprayer at your hardware store for around $15-$20. It is one of those plastic bottles with a hand pump and a wand on the end of a hose. Cut the wand off of the hose, and adapt it to a brass nipple fitting with the same pipe thread as the block. Fill the sprayer tank with oil, and pump it up to force the oil into the block galley.

I used one of these sprayers to pressurize and bleed my brakes. Here's a pic of mine.

Pete

[Rollie���]

Rollie, I have seen in many threads and have seen myself that it does take a while to crank and get oil pressure for the first time.

I have about 4 minutes of total crank time with no oil pumping to the filter and the last time I took the pump cover off no oil there either.

How long did you crank your motor Alex until you saw pressure?

Rollie-

You should be able to pick up an inexpensive weed sprayer at your hardware store for around $15-$20. It is one of those plastic bottles with a hand pump and a wand on the end of a hose. Cut the wand off of the hose, and adapt it to a brass nipple fitting with the same pipe thread as the block. Fill the sprayer tank with oil, and pump it up to force the oil into the block galley.

I used one of these sprayers to pressurize and bleed my brakes. Here's a pic of mine.

Pete

Now that you mention brake bleeding Pete I'm going give my mighty-vac hand pump a go to try to prime before heading to the hardware store, thanks.

[Joe Flanagan]

Rollie, my problem turned out to be a stuck oil pressure relief valve. I cranked for quite a while before I got oil up in the canister. Then the maximum pressure I could get was 10 pounds. I investigated the relief valve and found it to be frozen in place. The engine was rebuilt about 8 years ago and never run. Everything is new. I guess sitting for so long in its bore it somehow siezed. Anyway, after I cleaned it up, my oil pressure shot up to 30 instantly while cranking.

I checked out the drawing in the manual that shows how the oil flows and you have oil in the valve train before it gets up to the canister. I believe the canister is the oil's highest point. So even though you don't have oil in the filter, you probably have it throughout the block. At least that is what the manual indicates. You might have a blocked line, too.