flat head help

WHY WON'T THIS #@~*^%#@ START ? New plugs, cap, rotor, points, condensor. At TDC with rotor pointing to #1 terminal on cap. Got good spark but backfiring thru carb. Am I off 180* ? Do I feel compression out of spark plug hole on both comp. and exhaust strokes on a flat head ? I'm really getting PO'd.:evil: :evil: :evil: HHEEELLLLPPPP.

 

If someone mussed up the tooth alignment of the oil pump gears sometime in its life, your dist timing will be off mark. Mine is off --IIRC mine is 17 deg and should be 5. Mine fires instantly warm. Have some one crank it while you move the dist -- see if it catches. Mine wouldn't start when set to specs -- got it to purr at 17 and just did a *shrug* alllllrighty. I found out later about the oil pump.

 

I agree. Mine is off also and it is a royall PITA to figure it out.
Keep at it,walk away every once and a while and hit something(not the Jeep) with a hammer. It will fire.

 

GOT IT! Thanks Moses Ludel. The PO said he had the motor rebuilt. Something was fishy when I pulled the cap off, like the rotor was rubbing the cap. Didn't catch it at first but I think the PO played with wires and kinda had the rotor stuck on the shaft wrong. Don't know if that's possible but what I had to do was this: After reading what Moses had to say about timing and distributors I started again from the top with wifey at my side feeling up the #1 spark plug hole. Got TDC and rotor was pointing to #4. Off 180* right? But the end of the dist shaft only engages the oil pump one way. Yanked the dist and sure enough, the oil pump gears were off 180*. Pulled the pump, spun the gears, reinstalled the pump and distributor and.....VIOLA!!! ( or wa-laaa) Played with the timing by ear a little and got the feel of the Solex ( kinda) and took er 'round the block 1 1/2 times. Neighbors came out of the houses, kids through confetti and the missus shed a tear while riding shot gun round the block.....1.......and a half...times. Yea, before the smoke cleared out of the holler, she shut down half a block from the house. Towed her home, shut the hood and considered the day a success. The sun will rise again tomorrow and I will be one step ahead of where I was today with that truck.

 

You gotta love these great old Jeep stories!

 

Thanks Jon and GoDevil, too. You guys were on the right track. I just got to the books before getting back to the site.

 

Sounds like you got it figured out, but this thing can be a pain. I fought a timing problem for a long long time. Every time I thought I got it right, it would slowly deteriorate. Later, found that "other" screw that tightens the distributor. Got it timed, and tightened both. thought I had it figured out cause it ran close to good. A little deeper searching, and a long time later, many many nights. I found that the firing order on the cap was ccw, instead, of cw or whichever, now I forget, but it was backwards, and it was so far out of timing that it actually ran. Got it all straightened out, have to use the light on the #3 wire for who knows what reason, but it runs now, and actually pretty good. Fought that for much longer than I would like to admit.

 

Sounds like you cap was on backwards (180 out) where it doesn't seat itself correctly. There is a notch on one side of the cap that lines up with the distro. Don't ask me how I know. In a hurry I.....