'240 Fire!! How to troubleshoot after fixing wiring?

Hi,

I am a first-time owner of a 1982 '240.

I have been a General Motors owner all of my life.
This '240 was given to me by a co-worker.
It has been a project car for my 16-year old son and me.

I can't tell you how impressed I am by how much easier
this car is to work on than my Cutlass!
I mean only one 13mm socket to loosen all of the belts?!

Anyway, we got this car for free because it had an electrical
engine fire.

It was the wiring harness below the timing cover.
I used to install car stereos, so soldering new 15 or so odd
wires hasn't been a problem.

The problem is this car won't start.

We did not have a great manual to go by:
I am wondering if we don't have the timing belt gears are
set up right.


This is what I did:

Cam belt -easy -
I just lined up the two big notches.

Crankshaft belt -pretty easy -
I found a medium-sized notch on the
pulley and lined it up to zero degrees on the cover scale.

Distributer belt - not sure of -
I lined the rotor with the
mounting screws axis. It lined up to something like
7 o'clock position as you look at it from the front of the car.

Does this sound right?
This car has spark. But only
coughs once in a while when cranking.

I've googled the groups and have a list of other things to check
(Fuses, relays, fouling, etc.) and will do so.

Any help/suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Dan and Nick

 

Check your timing belt work at:
http://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/EngineSealsBeltsVent.htm

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Double check the distributor, I had a problem similar to yours when I got it
off by 180 degrees, it's also possible that you ran the firing order going
the wrong way around the distributor, it's easy to do if you're used to
working on a car that spins it the opposite direction.

 

Most likely has no bearing, but are the cylinders of a 4 numbered from the
front (like any other car) or weird like the 6 - beginning from the back end
of the motor?

 

<snip>


Hey,

Thanks for the tips!

We tried moving spark plug wires 180 degrees around on the distributor.
It backfired through the air cleaner.
It was a way nasty pop that burst the snorkel hose.

I thought, "Well, I must have fuel and spark..."

I then moved the wires 90 degrees clockwise from my original position.
The car started right up. I am at the clockwise extreme for the distributor
cap position, though.
I guess I will be having to go to the wire's "backfire" position and offset
with the cap position.

I must have misinterpreted something about the rotor position when
installing the timing belt.
If this is too much of a pain moving wires, I'll have to remove the timing
belt and work on
figuring out the correct gear setting...

Thanks again for your help!

Dan and Nick

 

The aux shaft gear has a timing mark which normally points more or less
straight to the right when looking at the front of the motor, though the
actual position doesn't matter so much, you can always just rotate it until
the dist rotor is pointed in a reasonable direction. Easiest way to fix it
from where you are now is pull the distributor out, rotate the shaft and
stick it back in. You might have to poke a screwdriver down to rotate the
oil pump shaft to line it up though.