Engine won't start, firing order, killing the battery

[Leroy_47_Plymouth]

Now that I have my fuel situation taken care of, rebuilt carb on the 47 Plymouth flat head 6 and fuel is present in spray down the carb vent the engine won't start. I did however at one time had it running as the wife helped to turn it over as I poured gas down the carb and ran for 10 seconds, but ran real rough since it hadn't run since 2001. In the process it's killing a brand new 6 volt battery. I have a spare coil and checked for spark at no. 1 plug and it was there. I'm going to pull the distributer cap off and get no.1 piston to top dead center by removing plug, check harmonic balancer timing mark and with a long 1/4 dowel check piston for TDC. Check distributer for no 1 firing at 7 o'clock. Firing order of 1-5-3-6-2-4. Question: the firing order on the engine itself no.1 being first from water pump and the rest of the firing order consecutively 5 3 6 2 4 so i can check each plug wire to each spark plug. What's the plug gap for spark plug and gap for points on the high lobe of distrubuter. Thru this whole process the new battery (and yes it's at positive ground) has driained and been recharged.

[greg g]

did you do a static timing procedure to assure that your rotor is pointing to #1 sparklead when it is at TDC  on compression stroke?

[Leroy_47_Plymouth]

Define a static timing procedure? Tho I will Google/Bing the procedure. I just got my rebuilt carb later in the day yesterday since I felt previous one had issues with able to supply fuel. Today I'll do what I posted. Wanted to get nod of approval I'm in the right direction. Static timing is to be looked into.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Leroy_47_Plymouth

[casper50]

you can't touch the piston through the sparkplug hole.  There's a plug on top of the head at the rear of the engine.  You can remove and stick a wire in there to find TDC for #6  1 and 6 are at TDC at the same time just opposite intake/exhaust cycle.  Make sure #6 is on exhaust TDC

[DonaldSmith]

You can be sure that No. 1 is at the top of the compression stroke by holding your thumb over the spark plug hole while you look at the rotor and crank the engine.  It will be obvious whether the rotor is pointing to 7 o'clock or 1`o'clock when you feel the pressure on your thumb.

 

(When you do this, have the coil disconnected, and of course, the plugs out, for easier cranking.)

 

For several years after I got my car, the rotor pointed to 1 o'clock and the spark wires were deranged accordingly.  Finally I took the bullsh by the horns and set things right. 

Edited July 26, 2016 by DonaldSmith

[Sharps40]

Tissue in plug hole. It pops out on the compression stroke

Front to back pistons are 1-6. Front to back they are wired 1 5 3 6 2 4

Ruff static timing to get ya running is 16 to 18 thousands point gap. Rotor points to no1 dizzy tower. Timing indicator from 4 before to 4 After. Start with 0 on the indicator which is tdc

Edited July 26, 2016 by Sharps40

[Sharps40]

.032 plug gap till ya know what is by the book

[dpollo]

If you have gas, spark and compression and it is timed right, it has to run.

 

Chances are, compression is low after sitting so long. Especially if you have had the plugs out and little flakes of carbon have settled on the valve seats . To save your battery,  give the car a push, put it in second and let in the clutch.

If all is right it will start  and the rough running will correct itself in short order. 

[_shel_ny]

http://p15-d24.com/page/p15d24/reference/maintenance.html

[_shel_ny]

click, then  scroll  down for static timing

 

http://p15-d24.com/page/p15d24/tech/tech_tips.html

[Leroy_47_Plymouth]

Confused more than ever........first off i'm doing this solo.....no help at all. Second i have no brakes, no registration, no insurance. And what the hell is a dizzy tower??? I'm no stranger to what I'm up against so I'm going to have to filter all the above.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Leroy_47_Plymouth

[Leroy_47_Plymouth]

You can be sure that No. 1 is at the top of the compression stroke by holding your thumb over the spark plug hole while you look at the rotor and crank the engine.  It will be obvious whether the rotor is pointing to 7 o'clock or 1`o'clock when you feel the pressure on your thumb.

 

(When you do this, have the coil disconnected, and of course, the plugs out, for easier cranking.)

 

For several years after I got my car, the rotor pointed to 1 o'clock and the spark wires were deranged accordingly.  Finally I took the bullsh by the horns and set things right. 

I'm doing this alone. I have no one to crank the engine as i stick my thumb in a hole.

[Leroy_47_Plymouth]

you can't touch the piston through the sparkplug hole.  There's a plug on top of the head at the rear of the engine.  You can remove and stick a wire in there to find TDC for #6  1 and 6 are at TDC at the same time just opposite intake/exhaust cycle.  Make sure #6 is on exhaust TDC

How would i know if and when #6 is on exhaust TDC. Scuse the pun, not using my xray vision today.

[casper50]

by feeling the air leaving #1 cylinder when you are raising #6

[T120]

A remote starter button can be a useful tool as well.

[Sharps40]

I'm doing this alone. I have no one to crank the engine as i stick my thumb in a hole.

  that's why I said to put tissue in the number one plug hole.  It pops out when the #1 comes up on compression.

[casper50]

pretty hard to stop the engine soon enough when using the starter to find TDC

[_shel_ny]

With the spark plugs out you can easily turn the engine by hand using the fan belt.

 

An in-line spark tester can be use to determine if you are getting a spark from the proper dizzy tower (7 towers on the distributor. 1 for wire from coil. 6 for wires going to the plugs.)

 

[_shel_ny]

Tissue, or masking tape over the hole. Tape less likely to get sucked into the hole. Tissue would burn when you get fire, but who wants to keep going to find another tissue after it gets sucked into the #1 cylinder

[Don Coatney]

Suggest you click on the resources tab at the top of this page and read everything in there. I also suggest you buy and read a service manual. Pasted below is how I static timed my engine.

 

Posted 28 June 2014 - 04:40 PM

 

I brought the engine to TDC and noted the rotor position I installed the distributor and positioned it very close to the same position it was in when I removed it. I made an attempt to fire the engine and it was a no go. I made attempts to fire the engine with my remote starter button and a hot wire under the hood while turning the distributor under the hood and it was all a no go. I connected my timing light while cranking the engine with the starter and found my timing was a good way off from TDC. So I brought the engine to TDC using the starter motor. I pulled the plug wire from #1 spark plug and connected it to a spare plug sitting on the head. I then (without spinning the engine) moved the powered up distributor until I was getting spark exactly at TDC correctly static timing the engine.

 

As I had been spinning the engine a lot with no fire I suspected my plugs may be fowled so I removed them and sand blasted them. While the plugs were out I also used an air gun down the plug holes to clear the cylinders of any flooding. Reinstalled the plugs, hit the starter button, and the engine fired right up. I then used my timing light to dial it in.

 

So my point being correct engine timing is a very small window. If you take the time to insure your engine is correctly static timed and all other system problems are corrected the chance of starting is greatly improved.

[Sharps40]

Anybody that sucks tissue into the cylinder dosnt know enough about engines to be working on them. Good gosh fellas, it ain't difficult to find tdc.  Valve lifter position, dizzy rotor position, moving tissue paper, thumb over #1 hole, a light across the points, a meter across the points, remove plugs 2 thru 6 and feel where it gets hard to turn the crank, heck, shoving rope in the number one hole and compressing it will even get you a 50/50 chance of being right.....but simply, pick an indicator and turn the crank, that's all there is to it.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Sharps40

[De55]

Leroy, check your messages.

[Niel Hoback]

Put a ping pong ball over the #1 plug hole.

[casper50]

That sounds like a pretty good idea Niel.

[DonaldSmith]

It helps a lot to have a remote starter and ignition switch.  

 

I mounted a starter button and a toggle switch in bottom of a small can.  A common wire, clipped to the battery hot post (negative for our positive ground cars), connects to both the starter button and the toggle switch. A wire from the button connects to the starter solenoid post that's connected to the car's starter button.   A wire from the toggle switch clips to the hot post of the coil (negative post for our cars) that is wired to the car's ignition switch.

 

This gizmo allows me to crank the engine while observing it, and even while having my thumb over the No. 1 spark plug hole.  The toggle switch allows me to crank the engine without it trying to start, or to shut off the engine after running it under observation.

 

The only oddity is that if you have left "on" any accessory that is controlled by the ignition switch, that accessory will turn on when you turn on the toggle switch.  Not a big deal, but maybe a surprise.