Truck won't start ?

[oldblu65]

I have been working on my truck for a couple years now . I replaced the 6 with a 283 . I've worked on it as time as money would allow . It 's been in the garage for a number of years , undriven , but I'd occasionally start it up to charge the battery and circulate some oil through it . I recently finished replacing all the brake components ( shoes , hardware , wheel cylinders , brake hoses , and drums ) . So I finally would get to start it and back it out to the driveway so the garage could get some much needed cleaning ! I get in and hit the key to start it and it starts up and runs very raggedly for about 10 seconds and quits ! It's always been " cold- natured " so I didn't think too much about . Well guys , It hasn't hit a lick since and that's been 4 days ago .I done everything I can think of with no success . Although the engine was used when I bought it , it was in very good shape . I put a new carb and a new distributor on it . It has the all new parts inside the distributor ( points , condenser ,rotor , cap and coil ) . I'm apparently not getting any spark and yes , it does have gas in it . . To top it off , my multi- tester quit working when I was running down power sources. Does this truck ( 1965 C10 ) have fusible links hidden somewhere ? What am I missing here ? It has me stumped ! I'm pretty sure it's a wiring problem , but , hey , what do I know ? Apparently not much .

[salazar44]

The timing is all correct?

[fuelpump]

If it ran raggedly (but still ran) are you sure you are getting gas to the carb? Bad fuel pump or plugged line maybe. If it was electrical is would be dead in an instant.

[66Gilbert]

Run a wire from the battery to the ignition switch side of the coil, if it starts it may be the power source from the ignition switch or the switch itself or power wire to the switch. I have seen a mouse or rat take up residence in vehicles and love to eat wires. You may also spray a shot of starting fluid or gas down carb while cranking, if it starts you have a fuel problem, bad fuel pump or pluged line. Hope this helps.

[64GMCHorsepower]

Does it even turn over?

HAve you pulled a plug wire to confirm no spark?

Chad

[oldblu65]

It cranks as normal , just doesn't fire . I've run the battery way down several times and had to recharge it . . It has a new fuel pump . I have tried starting fluid several times with no luck . I haven't had a chance to pull a plug , to check for fire , as I've been by myself doing this - no helper or extra pair of hands ? 66 , I will try your suggestion to run a wire from the battery to the ignition side of the coil . If you reach over and move the throttle by hand , you can see the accelerator pump squirt gas down the carb . So I'm fairly sure it's getting gas to the carb , I also took the inline filter apart ( it had gas in it ) and blew the screen clean with compressed air .As far as I know , the timing is right but can't check it now . Tomorrow is a new day , maybe my luck will change ? Thanks for the help , guys ! Just keep it coming !

[protrash64]

Does it have FRESH gas? My truck would barely run on old crap after sitting.........threw in some new stuff and it ran like its supposed to run. Just a thought.

[64Magoo]

My truck was doing similar things a couple months ago and I replaced the voltage regulator. Is the voltage regulator all hooked up correctly?

[oldblu65]

The truck does have fresh gas as well as gas conditioner ( stabil ) in the tank , It has a new fuel pump and the voltage regulator is original so I'm sure it's hooked up right . I'm not sure what shape it's in , but , when it does run , the amp guage shows a charge . When I was trying to start it today and yesterday and the day before and.....well each time I was cranking it , it was showing a steady discharge as it cranked to no avail . So I'm assuming it works okay but you know what they say about assuming ? I'll be back in the garage tomorrow trying to see if my feeble old mind has missed some tiny , minor detail that's causing this disaster . Good luck to me and thanks to all for your help !

[64GMCHorsepower]

I would try to get someone (Wife, GF, neighbor...mailman when he comes by) to turn the key while you check for spark....

That helps a whole lot to know that the coil is good, and the dizzy is working.....

At least look towards something mechanical after that......

Good luck...

Chad

[mr48chev]

There should be a resistor wire in the wire from the switch to the coil.

The jumper wire between the positive post on the battery and the switch side of the coil is probably the quickest way to eliminate other problems. If the truck runs then you can trace back through the circuit and find the problem.

Other things to look at.
Wire from switch to coil not connected. The resistor bypass wire from the starter sounds like it is connected but the wire from the switch may not be if someone separated them at one time.

The same wire broken. Those 40 year old wires are a bit fragile at times and don't like a lot of moving around.

Bad switch. You can test this with a test light or multimeter.

[oldblu65]

A report on my progress , it's easy - there is no progress ! I've tried all suggestions with no improvement . I've racked my brain ( ? ) and can't come up with a solution to this #*&*#@ problem . I'm getting gas to carb , I do get , what looks to me , like a weak spark when you pull a plug and hold it close to a ground . It looks really weak to me . I have noticed , when you crank the engine , it seems like the battery discharges very quickly . I have an old manual that has a list of causes for a no start situation . I have gone down the list and all items listed are good down to number 8 on the list where it lists a high drawing starter . It says the starter could be pulling the power down to where you would get a weak spark at the plugs . Does this sound like a possible cause ? Any thoughts on this or any other ideas ? # 9 on that list is a bad ignition switch and if the starter is good , I'll look at that next .I truly appreciate all your suggestions and I'm confident we'll figure this out ! I'll pull the starter off tomorrow and have it tested . This has been a week to forget ! First this problem , then Monday I had to put my car into the body shop to have a dented right quarter panel repaired ( courtesy of a hit and run driver at the mall ) , my daughter's Nissan is in my driveway waiting for me to fix a problem with it ( I know nothing about Nissans ) and my wife's Impala decided she didn't need a/c anymore ! So , we are down to one vehicle right now so I'll have to wait till my wife gets home before I can take the starter to be checked . I apparently have made some one up there ^ mad at me !

[ChiefRocka]

That is possible that the starter is drawing all the power, however, you mentioned it fired and ran ruff for a few....so it did fire.

Put a charger on the battery, get it warmed up, then try again.

This time, as mentioned before run a power to the + of the coil while cranking.

Check the resistor connections. Check the connections at the starter. If you have two small wires going to the solenoid, then one supplys FULL 12v to the coil while cranking, which will bypass the resistor.

Points ot HEI ??

How are the points ?? File them smooth, re-adjust and try again. Dwell should be at 30*

Once you rule out the dist, what about the coil and it's connections ??

GoodLuck !!

[1966-Suburban-V-8]

Hold on there! Don't pull that starter just yet. You said earlier that it cranks normally. Until you started having battery problems. Go out and pull the battery from the Nissan and give it a try. Sounds llike your battery may be toast. Has it been starting & running good since you replaced the distributor?
Pull all the plugs, Crank it without pumping the gas. Turn it over for about 15 sec. Now go give it the sniff test. Should be some hint of gas if the choke is working and it's cranking nicely. Use a compression tester on each cyl. and write down the numbers. Get a good look at the plugs, clean 'em if you need to. Put 7 back in and leave #1 out. Use a remote starter switch & timing light to confirm you are lining up the timing mark within reason. Is your timing light flashing? Then your ign system should be working OK. You've checked most everything it needs to start if all this checks out.
Let us know what you've found.

Dan

[badriand]

Just browsing throu did you check the distributor ground wire to the body somewhere. I was backing mine out last week and it always cranks no problems and it died halfway down the driveway, took me about 30 mins to figure out the the ground wire off my hei came loose, it was hanging down so i could't tell. I had to trace all the wires and noticed it, anyway just wrapped it around a loose screw and vroom. Success.

[oldblu65]

I do have some news - Because my volt meter had conked out , I had checked the power , at the positive side of the coil , with a test light . It showed power . I didn't know how much ? Well , I got a new voltmeter today and it shows only 8 volts at the positive side of the coil with the ignition switch on but not in the cranking position. What does this tell you guys ? I think I may have a dragging starter that's sucking up all the power . As you can tell and I'll freely admit , I'm not much of an electrical kind of guy ! This is kinda ironic since my father was a life-long electrician .If this lights a " bulb " above any ones head , let me know your thought 's . Thanks again !

[jhow66]

Check your timing (dist. off, timing chain jumped, etc.)

[truckn']

If you've only got 8 volts your battery is not getting a charge from your alternator or generator. and it is possible that your starter is going bad. I would try swapping a known good battery to see if it starts and if it does I would put your meter on it and watch it for a few minutes to see if the charge is being drained because of lack of charge from alternator. 8 volts I don't believe is going to give you enough cranking amps to turn over your truck. I could be wrong, I'm an industrial electrician, just haven't spent as much time on the trucks as I would like to. I hope this leads you somewhere.

[oldblu65]

I had the starter checked and it was dragging somewhat and would get hot very quickly . So I replaced it and it spins over much faster now. I've been told that 8 volts , at the positive terminal of the coil when the switch is on but not cranking the engine over, is correct . This is why you have a ballast resistor in that circuit from the ignition switch , to reduce the voltage to the coil when the engine is cranking ,to keep the points from burning up . I guess that eliminates the ballast resistor as a suspect ! The wire from the starter supplies a full 12 volts , to the coil , once the engine starts. The battery is good ( it's new ) so I don't think that's involved in the no - start problem . I know it's good since I 've tried a second battery and had no luck with it either .I also replaced the ignition switch. Right now , I think timing is the problem and if not , maybe the new carb has died . I hate the thought of the latter one being the cause . I appreciate all the help and welcome any more any one has to offer ! Tomorrow , I'll be back in my garage - this d*m thing AIN'T going to "whoop" me .

[64Magoo]

I don't know if it will help you but I had gone through 4 batteries in roughly as many months and NONE of them worked right. I hooked up a new voltage regulator to a brand spankin new Optima Red Top and lemme tell ya' the red top is the way to go for $160 bones I wouldn't suggest anything different.

[salazar44]

As some of you know.. my recent starting issues were the result of autozone giving me the wrong battery. They were off 1 number. The battery was only 500CCA, not enough to turn the engine enough to start. I thought it was the starter the whole time. Shimmed it left and right. Then popped in the new correct battery. The puppy started right up. My point is... check your flux capacitor. Nah, jk. What 64magoo said. Make sure your bat is good and has at least 650 cca. Also, I didnt see if you checked ur timing yet. How about your firing order on ur wires?

[oldblu65]

64magoo , was your truck doing the same thing as I've described or something else ? The voltage regulator has been on the truck as long as I've owned it ( since 1976 ) and is probably the original 1965 equipment . Do you think it would be worth the effort to replace it ? Also , some one had asked if I had checked the ground wire to the distributor ? Is there an actual wire from the distributor or is it just grounded where its inserted into the block ? There is only one wire coming out of my distributor and it goes to negative side of the coil . Am I missing something here ? Back to the voltage regulator , Would it cause the problems I've talked about ?

[jhow66]

Replace reg-no. No ground wire. No. No.

[Ham-er]

Wont start After the new distributor installed??Or was it working ok shortly after installation? The spark has to be at the right TIME(set the dist correctly)! Also spark needs to be of the correct duration(use a dwell meter)!

[greg64]

Hi oldblue. Finally catching up on the threads and noticed your problem. From reading all the above information, I think you're right that ignition is the problem. Also, the weak spark is definitely a clue. The 8V at the coil with the key on sounds right. I'm not sure if you actually confirmed that the coil has 12V when cranking (using the extra wire that runs from coil + directly to the starter).

If you disconnect the coil high-tension wire from the distributor and stick a spark plug in it (now there's no juice at the plugs in the engine), you should get a nice blue spark across the gap while cranking (just stick the plug on the intake somewhere so it can make a ground). I have a plug I use for this test that has a huge gap (about 3/16"). This is because it's way harder for electricity to cross the gap inside the cylinders where the pressure is way higher than free air. So, the much larger gap simulates the conditions in the cylinder. If the spark colour is red/pink, the voltage is too low.

If this test shows that you have weak spark, try cleaning the points with a small file, as was previously suggested. You might want to check the dwell and gap as well. If this still doesn't improve your spark, you might want to try a different coil, just for testing.

If the spark looked good when the plug was connected directly to the coil, try putting the test plug in the #1 cylinder wire and reconnecting the coil to the distributor. The spark SHOULD look the same as it did before. If it's weaker, then your distributor cap/rotor and wires are suspect.

Good luck, and when you're done screwing around with this, do yourself a favour and put in a Pertronix or swap the distributor to an HEI. I can't understand why anyone would still use points now. So troublesome! And even when points are new, they still can't produce anywhere near the spark that an HEI can (will jump a 1" gap).

Let us know how you make out.