Hey Guys!

 

I have a problem with my 86 brat Ea81 1.8L. IT WILL NOT START. I have spark, I have compression, I have good fuel supply, I have good air. Heres the deal:

 

Car has always had an irregular idle. I installed new fuel and vac lines with a reman carb. Start engine, it runs fine, but i still had an odd idle. I had a reman dist. assembly (with new cap and rotor) and new high end wire set i then installed ( and yes i was careful to put the dist back exactly as it was). car would not start. Checked and rechecked everything and could not find any reason for this not to work. I noticed the ing. coil looked like it has been in the car for over 200,000 miles, so i when and got a new one and installed it, still no start. Then we decied to reinstall the old dist and wire set as the car was at least running with the old config. Still the car will not start. So we decided to re-time the dist. found dead center and aligned the rotor to #1 cycle. Still wont start. we set the timing back to dead center, HOWEVER the rotor was pointed 180* off,so we reset the rotor again, and the car did not start, and again found the rotor to be off 180*. No matter how you reset the timing, the rotor is always 180* off. What the heck is going on!!!. i would like to think that the timing gears are fine as the engine came from CCR about 1.5 years ago. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!! thanks BlueRu

#1 cylinder is the front one on the passenger side of the engine, or front left as you stand infront of the car looking at engine. Pull the spark plug on that cylinder, put a finger against the plug hole, and bump the starter until you feel pressure on the finger that you have blocking the sparkplug hole.

 

You are now at the compresion stroke for #1 cylinder. Turn engine over BY HAND until you see the timing marks, align the 0* mark on the flywheel with the indicator on the bell housing.

 

Pull the distributor cap and note where the rotor is pointing. It should be pointing to the back of the engine, just to the right of the rear cap hold down, if it isn't, you have the disty in 180* out of time to the crank. This really sounds to me to be your issue, along with the fact that you are looking at the timing marks on the flywheel and thinking the disty should always be at #1 when the marks are lined up. Not true... Disty turns 1/2 turn to every turn of the crank.

Thanks man, after i ge done stuffing my face, ill go back out to Ru and double check my "procedure" and see what i come up with. THANKS AGaIN!!!

22mm is the crank pully bolt size - you can turn it over by hand till you either feel compression, or use a drinking straw to feel the piston come up to TDC with both valves closed. When the timing mark lines up with 0 stab the disty in pointing at the #1 plug wire and you should be good.

 

GD

A BIG TIP OF THE HAT TO MR. TomRHere. I see now the 2:1 ratio deal. Ru fired up and is running. :banana: Many thanks!!!!!!!!!

A BIG TIP OF THE HAT TO MR. TomRHere. I see now the 2:1 ratio deal. Ru fired up and is running. :banana: Many thanks!!!!!!!!!

 

For future reference, as a general rule - distributors and camshafts run at 1/2 crank speed.

 

GD

We replaced an engine in the '78 and the disty was 180 off... the fireworks/noise out the carb freaked me out... it's a 50-50 chance... glad you solved it!

 

Best of luck... I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my '86. It's my daily driver. Rain, shine, blizzard!