Haha, Well I don't know 'bout you but I usually look at the engine from the front... Looking from the front, the engine spins CW. Describing your way, "the first visible mark" would be advanced from the painted line.

Don't know what the painted mark is in reference to. Maybe there is another mark even more CCW, making the painted mark advanced to it. But hey, I'm not there, can't see it.


Last thought, If this person that made the mark had an advancing timing light, he would mark TDC (0°) , advance the timing light to what he wanted (say 6°) and move the distributor until the "painted mark" lined up with the pointer.

I think I just gave myself a headache... Best of luck to ya.




"The Master Cylinder"

Enjoying life at the beach in SOCAL

Right. Thanks.
Obviously I thought the engine turned the other way. I could have simply bumped the starter and observed which way the mark moved. Dumb.
The good news is this means my timing is pretty much right on, but I will look to see if there are more marks below the painted one just to be sure. I've been trying to find a photo of a Y block pully that shows the marks but so far the interwebs have not produced. I actually thought I remembered seeing one this site, but can't find it.
So I will stop worrying about the stuck distributor for now and tackle that after the other stuff gets sorted out. I did give it a good squirt with penetrating oil FWIW.

Any ideas on the gas coming out the carb? It seems to me like when the engine kicks but doesn't start somehow the compressed air fuel mixture or unburned exhaust gases come out the intake instead of the exhaust.

Thanks ALL who have responded.

I thought about it again last night laying in bed. It won't get enough juice to the electronic kit to start while cranking, so why not just run a lead from the starter side of the solenoid to the coil? The other lead seems to give enough voltage once it starts. I lashed the distributor back down after my go-round with the timing, and ran another stranded copper wire from the solenoid pole to the coil. That makes 4 connections on the coil + terminal (original red wire-I assume from ignition, red wire from the Pertronix, extra lead wire from the ignition previously run, and now the last new one from the solenoid.

Tried to start it and no difference. Only pops at the moment the starter is disengaging.

I'm stumped. How can I ever get 5-6 volts to the Pertronix while the starter is cranking; enough voltage to send a spark to the plugs?

You have to trace all of the stock wiring from the battery to the ignition coil and make sure it is all in good shape. That is the only way to fix the problem correctly.

I would not run a wire from the starter side of the solenoid to the coil. If you do this, the starter may try to turn when the ignition is on and it will try to draw a lot of current through that little wire which means lots of smoke, possibly fire, and more difficult electrical repairs.

If I'm understanding this correctly, you still have wires installed that you have added and allowed the car to start previously, but now it does not. This suggests one of two things, everything else being equal. The battery needs to be charged or the Pertronix may be damaged due to the things you've tried and your lack of understanding about electricity. Don't misunderstand, I'm not being mean but simply being frank. Perhaps the best thing now is to reinstall the points to get it running again since we know they worked, address the vacuum line problem you have discovered, get the distributor loose, and check the overall condition of the distributor, replace or repair as necessary and when all of that seems to be good, get back to the Pertronix install. When everything else is working correctly, I don't think you will notice any difference with the Pertronix, anyway.


Lawrenceville, GA

I removed the wire from the solenoid to the coil. It made no difference anyway.

There is no difference in the performance of the Pertronix from initial install to now.
At this point the only modification is the extra wire from the ignition to the coil.
It WILL start, I just have to stop the starter and at that instant there is enough juice to the Pertronix - and thus the spark plugs - to ignite. If I get lucky (about 1 in 8 tries) it will start and run. About 50% of the time it does nothing and the other 38% it pops/kicks and tries to start but does not; these are the ones that can sometimes result in the gas coming out the top of the carb.

It seems to run fine once it starts.

So, I'm just about to the point where I think I'll just put points and a condenser back it and forget about it.

I cleaned the terminals on the solenoid as a starting point. The battery cables look newish and very thick with lots of stranded copper like 6 Volt cars had/have.

I can start to trace some wiring but will need some guidance. There are two wires coming off the solenoid, a moderately thick yellow one from the battery side terminal and a red one coming off the single smaller post. Where do those terminate? I can check/bypass those as a first start.

I think I might also try the original coil first instead of the 0.6 Ohm High performance coil that was to be a performance enhancer, also purchased to go with the electronic ignition. Can't hurt.

The smaller red one come from the ignition switch "S" post to 'activate' the solenoid. The larger yellow one goes to the headlight switch and ignition switch "B" post. This is the main power to the car.

"The Master Cylinder"

Enjoying life at the beach in SOCAL

I just caught the comment about the .6 OHM performance coil........is it recommended for use with the Pertronix module you have? Normally I only expect to see them used with the later model controllers that can vary dwell. Earlier modules needed a 1.5 OHM coil to avoid injuring the grounding transistor with "over-current".

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Have you thought of using a (6v) relay to trigger the coil? Run a lead from the battery to one side of the relay, then a lead from the other side to the coil, and use the original coil wire as the trigger to energize the relay.


South Australia

Yes, when I talked to Pertronix that is the coil they recommend for my application. Thanks!

That sounds promising. Forgive my ignorance, but can you recommend a specific relay?