Louisiana Classic Truck Club

My 71 daily driver has a problem that has plagued me for a number of years. Every now and then, and usually when I am in a hurry or dressed up, it will not crank. It will just turn over and not crank at all. I can either let it sit until the next day or take the dist. cap off and wiggle everything around, put it back on and it will fire. It is a 350 with electronic ignition and I have changed the entire dist. and ignition switch and this has not helped. When this happens, I do have power to the dist., which leads me to believe it may be a grounding problem, but I do have a ground strap from the engine to firewall. If you can help me figure this out, I`ll name my next kid after you!!!

Scott Johnson wrote:My 71 daily driver has a problem that has plagued me for a number of years. Every now and then, and usually when I am in a hurry or dressed up, it will not crank. It will just turn over and not crank at all. I can either let it sit until the next day or take the dist. cap off and wiggle everything around, put it back on and it will fire. It is a 350 with electronic ignition and I have changed the entire dist. and ignition switch and this has not helped. When this happens, I do have power to the dist., which leads me to believe it may be a grounding problem, but I do have a ground strap from the engine to firewall. If you can help me figure this out, I`ll name my next kid after you!!!

Ok you replaced the dist., and sometimes it won't fire while it has 12 volts to the distributor while spinning over. If that's the case, and you don't have a tach hooked up that could be shorting out or something, then the problem has to be in the distributor. Did you replace the cap, rotor, and coil? Do you have a good connection on the ground strap under the coil? This is a stock HEI?

It is stock HEI, I put a totally different dist. with new cap, coil and rotor. It worked for awhile and I thought I had fixed the problem, but it didn`t. I haven`t checked to make sure it is a good ground, but I will. I thought I had it figured out the other day. I thought maybe the coil wasn`t making good contact with the rotor. The coil button under the cap was a little dirty so I cleaned it up and no problems for about 2 weeks, until today when it was raining and would not start. I just took the cap off and kinda messed with the pick-up and the module, put the cap back on and instant start. I may try another new cap and rotor and see how long it will work. It seems to me it has to be in the dist since it is getting 12v but will not fire. I do not have a tach hooked up just the single power wire.

Do you have a good seal between the hood and cowl?, Or could it be getting water in somewhere?

Did you put another used HEI? Or was it new? Does it act up sometimes when given the gas....kinda like bogging down?


Eric

No moisture in the cap, it was used HEI with new pick-up and module. The wires in the dist. looked visibly good and I checked for continuity. It was basically a dist. that I rebuilt myself. Also put new cap rotor and coil in the rebuilt dist. Worked fine for about six months, then would start doing the same thing. It has no pattern, it might start fine for 2 months and then won`t start. Then it might do it again in 2 weeks or 2 days.

check and see if there is slack on the shaft moving side to side....the bushing good be getting bad on the top...around where the mag pick up is.....I had one that would run fine, and would be boggy... and then sometimes it would not start, pull the cap and move stuff around and then it would run fine...then i found that grabing the rotor and trying to move it side to side and it had a good bit of slack....bought a new bare one and had no more problems after that.....


Eric

I will check that and let you know. Sounds like a good possibility.

Thanks
Scott

It's strange that it has the same problem as the old dist., but if you have 12 volts (not 9) at the dist when spinning over or running, then it's got to be something in the distributor. The reason I say not 9 is because the power wire for the old points type coil would have only had 9 or so volts.

Well Scott has the issue been fixed?????


Eric

Hasn`t messed up again yet, so I kinda forgot about it. I will definitely check the slack in the dist. soon as I get a chance.

So, the truck finally did not start yesterday evening, it was late so I just got in my wifes car and left the truck home to look at it later. Got in it this morning and it fired right up, so I did not mess with it. Trying to wait until it doesn`t start where I can maybe figure this puzzle out.

It happened again sunday afternoon when I went to the woods to check my trail cameras. I had to remove the Dist. cap to get it to start again. While I had it off I checked for slack and it did not seem to have any. I still have not checked to see if I am getting 9 or 12 volts, but that is my next step. I`ll keep you all informed, maybe I can finally figure this out with a little help.

Truck didn`t start again the other day, checked my voltage to the dist. and it was 12 volts. The only thing I can figure is that there is some dust build up on the rotor that keeps the voltage from going through the coil to the rotor. I think I will get another cap and coil and see how long it will last.

I'm not an HEI expert by any means, but I haven't read anywhere in this thread about the module inside the HEI. I had a buddy in the Army with me that carried one or two modules in his glovebox because they would constantly leave him stranded. If nothing else, I would verify that the wires and connectors are secure going in to the module. How old are your plugs and plug wires? Are the plugs gapped correctly? Excessive resistance in the plug wires will cause a module to over-heat. If you're lucky it will cool down and be able to start it later, much like when you posted on the 4th of Sept.