m37 not firing

[TED FITZGERALD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNxQddIFjuc<br><br>hi guys, just bought 2 m37s. used to have wc51 and m38a1 in past....older 37 has the orginal engine in it , the newer has its engine removed and hanging in a tree...eventually fired up the old one, runs well, got it to the yard ran it round but it stopped, removed ditributer and found bent metl on the dist arm, and burnt out wiring , due probably to it over revving when it started as the throttle link jammed open,,,have now re set cab, re set distributer and she won; r fire...got juice up to the dist, and the points but nothing at the plugs...an ideas anyone?..heeelp!

 

[EMD567]

Get out the TM, and retime the dist. to the engine.

 

[TED FITZGERALD]

Get out the TM, and retime the dist. to the engine.

ok, got that, bit does the dist shaft only go in one way?, there are not 2 positions for it at 180 degrees are there?

 

[EMD567]

I believe you can be 180 out. Need to find TDC on #1, and then time the dist so that it is on #1 Plug wire

 

[zout]

Remember - it does NOT set off TDC - it is set to 5 degree's before TDC - you should have this mark on the crank pulley - if you cannot clearly see it - clean it. That assists in resetting the oil pump - they key on the oil pump drive is offset - it is not centered.

 

[TED FITZGERALD]

thanks, will check this out....

 

[TED FITZGERALD]

ok, dumb question here, still sorting this timing thing out....the plugs are numbered 1-6 from front to back aren't they?
there's electric juice all the way up to the distributer, , and the points, but seems to be nothing get out to the plugs, have tried 2 distributer caps, distributer arms and swapped leads and plugs...
I can't see any mark on the crank pully, 20 years ol dirt on that....am going crazy with this, especially as she has fired and run recently...

 

[Ferroequinologist]

I would try to swap the coil then.

 

[retired wrench]

With the switch on and the points closed pull the coil wire out of the dist cap and hold it close to the head. With a wooden item move the points apart this should create a spark from the coil wire. If not seeif there is a small spark at the points they may have lost contact. You can check this by making contact across the points with a screwdriver.

 

[TED FITZGERALD]

hi, thanks for this, have been messing with 2 distributers,m,ay be a couple of years difference on them, i thought they were all the same but the firing order is different between them, and the distributer shaft is 180 out between the 2..so either there was a change in the manfucaturing, or the previous owner set these up differently...just fyi, dist 1 is on onbthe 1952 vehicle, dist 2 is off the 54 vehicle, dist 2 is in much better shape, so i figured it would be a straight swap...nah!..., and mixing and matching top and bottom sections didnt work, so....i took the coil and baseplate, including poiunts, condenser and rotor arm out of dist 2, put them into dist 1, wiggled things around a bit, hey presto, she fired and ran like a sewing machine!!!.so either the coil, condenser or points had failed on the old one...the coil looked pretty rough, oily and discoloured....so, have ordered new parts as back up , and hope to get the 52 engine out the old truck and into the 54 body and frame asap and get her rolling out on the road...thanks for your help, much appreciated....t

 

[retired wrench]

Just one comment, distributers dont have a firing order. They just go around and firing order is determined by the placement of the plug wires in the cap. Glad you got her going.