Thanks for the replies and humor. I have a 75 Mav that will not start. I located the Duraspark issues and I can now get a backfire through the carb and I want to to make sure the rotor is pointing to #1 on the compression stroke before going further. Thanks Bob
first, make a little ball with a supermarket bag(fruit section). then plug the #1 piston hole with it. when it pop out, theres TDC. but beware! sometimes it pops real hard!! (maybe because I turned the engine with the starter?)
Take all the spark plugs out. Set up your radiator overflow tank as a bubbler (always use a bubbler!) and put the #1 spark plug with its wire attached into the upper radiator hose. Disconnect the lower hose and attach that to your HHO generator. Activate the generator and give the HHO time to accumulate. Several hours should do the trick, but don't run your battery down. Now rotate your ignition cylinder to the "start" position. When your radiator becomes invisible and your Maverick does a wheelie, you have found top dead center.
All you have to do is pull the driver's side valve cover and look at the second set of rockers. When they are on overlap (exhaust closing and intake opening) set the crank pointer to TDC. Number one will be at tdc on the compression stroke. Why mess with pulling plugs? Of course this only works if you know your dampener hasn't slipped.
Checked the timing and I still can't start. The car turns over and every so often a nice flame comes out of the carb. For the heck of it I rewire the dizzy as if I was 180 degrees out and more of a backfire effect. I know I'm missing some vac lines but I would expect it to start. I decided to pull a few plugs and the two I pulled on the passenger side were wet with fuel from all the cranking, but the two on the driver's side wer dry. Fuel is sruirting into both sides of the card. I also pulled number 1 to verify spark and it looked good. When cranking the engine turns fast but every once so often I get a slower crank like it may be trying to start. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
My cousin's 289 did that when he had the firing order completely backwards. Drove us nuts 'til we figured it out. If memory serves, the Windsor firing order is counter clockwise?
The guy that had it before me put in a timing chain and did a valve job. Any chance this could cause it not to start?
