Truck turns over but wont fire

[ghackett1]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

I'm late to the party but unless you removed the distributor for some reason it shouldn't be out of time. You are getting several wild A-- guesses here from guys trying to sound like they know something but proving that they don't.

Several GM in the dash switches do not send power to the coil when you are cranking the engine and even with the HEI you need a resistor bypass wire.

On my 71 I bypassed the old ignition wire from switch to coil entirely and ran a wire (proper gauge for HEI with correct terminal) and haven't had any issues with it. I just taped the end of the old ignition wire and folded it over and taped it up.

I ran the wire to the HEI from one of the two IGN hot pins on the fuse block.

Personal experience says that a regular female slide connector on the ign post of the Hei can and will loosen up enough to loose contact going down the road. Usually at the wrong time when you are in your good clothes headed to work in the rain. You have to have that correct terminal rather than a female slide.

Before you do anything else make sure that you have power to the distributor when you are actually cranking the engine.

Yes I agree. I took a stab at this in post #11 and was corrected about the yellow wire (which I stand corrected on) what I meant to say is the resistor wire (used on every chevrolet points distributor I ever worked on). I disconnect the resistor wire and tape it up —- THEN I connect a new lead to the unfused ign terminal in the fuse block under the dash and run that to the coil. On the many restorations I have done this has always been how I did it and never had a problem.

[K10-Kansas]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

I'm late to the party but unless you removed the distributor for some reason it shouldn't be out of time. You are getting several wild A-- guesses here from guys trying to sound like they know something but proving that they don't.

Several GM in the dash switches do not send power to the coil when you are cranking the engine and even with the HEI you need a resistor bypass wire.

On my 71 I bypassed the old ignition wire from switch to coil entirely and ran a wire (proper gauge for HEI with correct terminal) and haven't had any issues with it. I just taped the end of the old ignition wire and folded it over and taped it up.

I ran the wire to the HEI from one of the two IGN hot pins on the fuse block.

Personal experience says that a regular female slide connector on the ign post of the Hei can and will loosen up enough to loose contact going down the road. Usually at the wrong time when you are in your good clothes headed to work in the rain. You have to have that correct terminal rather than a female slide.

Before you do anything else make sure that you have power to the distributor when you are actually cranking the engine.

Thanks. Yeah, originally I wasn't getting 12v to the HEI because I connected my kill switch incorrectly. I bypassed that and was then getting 12v to the distributer but still wouldn't start.

[K10-Kansas]

Originally Posted by v30crewcab

verify the batt wire is actually connecting to the terminal on the dist. I've had the terminal bent a little and it misses. pull the top cap and verify its actually connected and getting power.

In this whole process of taking it off and on several times and checking stuff out, definitely at least 1 time I plugged it up and totally missed the male blade. There is also a chance that originally it also wasn't connected correctly. Good catch. I went ahead and took off the bulky plastic connector housing around the female connector and put a new female connector on there so now I can easily tell when it is going on correctly. Thanks. That was definitely part of the problem on a few attempts to start it.

[K10-Kansas]

Originally Posted by Ironangel

Here's a pic of the plug gapping tool, https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Perfo...ch,464421.html

Thanks I bought one yesterday and checked the gap on the previous and the new plugs. I also looked through my paperwork today and I see the gap recommendations on several different makes of plugs. I didn't see the plugs I bought on the Blueprint paperwork but assume they are fine. The are the copper AC Delco same size and style as the ones I took out. They are gapped at 35 just like the prior plugs. Thanks!

[K10-Kansas]

Thanks for all of the great advice. Man, I had a lot going on on this one.

I did start today!!!

1) I had my kill switch set up wrong so I bypassed it.
2) The plugs were completely fouled so I replaced them.
3) When I pulled the distributer I put in back in incorrectly so I fixed that (Thanks Ironangel for all of the great advice).
4) I had mislabeled the plug order on the distributer and therefore, connected the wrong distributer origin wires to the wrong plugs so I fixed that. LOL, check out the picture in post #22
5) The ignition wire had a bulky plastic housing over the female connector so it was very hard to know if it was actually ever properly connected to the battery male blade on the distributor.
6) It's also entirely possible that it wont start with the tach wire connected to the distributer. I'll try to start it tomorrow with the tach wire connected.