So my car has been sitting in the garage for months. It used to run great, even made a 900mile round trip with no problems at all. When i came home from my trip, i let the car sit for maybe a month and then decided to use it to drive to work. The car would not start. It would backfire through the carb, but would not fire over whatsoever.

 

I thought maybe it was my weber carburator so I removed it and re-installed my hitachi but that did no good at all. The car would turn over and if it tried to fire at all the motor would just sieze like it was firing way prematurely.

 

I screwed with the timing, and it didnt get any better. So I removed the distributor and advanced it a tooth, re-installed and was able to get the car to fire. It would run, but ran like crap. Using my timing gun i couldn't locate any timing marks, so i knew it was WAY out of time, but it was the only way to get it to run.

 

Today I went back into the garage to mess with it. I set CYL #1 to TDC and removed the distrubitor. I reset the distributor using the marks and re-installed. Turned over the motor and it seems like i'm back at square one.

 

Is there anything I might have overlooked? Im at my wits end, and the weather is perfect for some wheelin!

Well, i took the distributor out, advanced the rotor 2 teeth, re-installed and it fired up

 

It cranks over, then it sounds like its about to backfire through the carb or fire and sieze, then it roars to life. Driving it, theres no extreme pinging, but when i attach my timing light I still cant find any timing marks.

Check the gear on the end of the distributor, and make sure nobody switched your plug wires around? How are the dist. driven on therse engines? I've had a cam gear wear off on other engines

I have checked, rechecked, double rechecked and checked again. My plug wires are correct. The disty seems to be in pretty good shape, gears arent worn or damaged.

Its hard to say... but always start simple, ya know. The fuel might be slightly off from sitting, fresh gas is always a good thing. Of course, check your plugs, wires, and fuel filters, the tune up works. Another thing to look for would be rat nests. they might have chewed some wires or something. look in the air cleaner...which you probably have already, but whatev. I'm sure the Weber is just fine. maybe it has enough miles on it for a rebuild though? just some thoughts.

Yeah, already done all that. Plugs were the 1st thing I changed (even before all the carb work). The Weber is on the workbench, the hitachi is back on. The plug wires are new, i even thought they were faulty and put in the old wires and still no change. The car sat with the tank empty, it has a half tank of fresh fuel.

 

Im wondering if maybe i have a bent valve or pushrod or some internal engine damage? I cant think of anything that would make the car backfire through the carburator.

Timing belt/chain (whatever it has) jumped a tooth, lifter jammed in the bore, anything that'll keep an intake valve open at the wrong time. Like has been said, start simple. Other than that, you're screwed

Hey newbie... these cars dont have timing belts or chains. The Disty is ran straight from the crank, which also runs the cam.

Well, like the name says......

 

Lots of time under hoods, just got my first subaru (to wrench on) and haven't even touched the motor internals yet. I'm still learning.

 

By the way, found a solution yet? If moving the distributor around gets some results, it sounds like you're 90 degrees out with the cap or the wires... but I'm guessing you've already tripple checked all that.

Yeah, the cap has marks where it wont fit the distributor incorrectly. The solution i came to was to just give up and part the car out.

Yeah, the cap has marks where it wont fit the distributor incorrectly. The solution i came to was to just give up and part the car out.

 

Now that makes sense to me:dead:

I'll give you $100 cash for the whole car. :cool: