I am having a porblem timing my 67 camaro witha 350 in it.. I have amllory unilite distrib and coil... the problem is that I am getting spark to the #1 cylinder but it will not register on the timing light.. I have checked the timing light and it works properly... I have even put the light on other plugs on the car and they light just fine... I have switched plugs and cables to a known working cylinder and they work... anyone have an idea of what could be going on? I am at a lost on what to do now... I have been told (don't know how true it is...) but the #1 cylinder requires more spark than the rest... could it be the coil ?
Posted by 2002Z4CSS (Member # 1393) on :
Welcome to the board! You are saying that the timing light will not even flash when it is on the #1 spark plug wire? If that is the case ,does the engine miss? How did you check for spark at that plug? Did you use a spark tester? Sounds like a bad plug wire. If it is flashing and you cannot see the balancer timing mark,maybe someone put a different balancer or timing pointer on the engine at one time. Posted by zleviticus (Member # 1648) on :
See i thought it might be a wire as well.. however I tested the wire and it was fine here is what I did/have done
I took the wire off the spark plug and put a nail/piece of metal in the end of the wire where it connects to the spark plug. then I held the nail close to the block and had someone start to turn it over and it sparked just fine.. I even took a wire from a cylinder that the light did flash on and put it on #1 and it did not light up. So I eliminated the wire as the problem..
so I am at a lost... The engine does not appear to be missing.. it sounds great but since I had to remove the dist to put new seals in the manifold. I need to time the engine again.
Posted by 2002Z4CSS (Member # 1393) on :
quote:Originally posted by zleviticus: See i thought it might be a wire as well.. however I tested the wire and it was fine here is what I did/have done
I took the wire off the spark plug and put a nail/piece of metal in the end of the wire where it connects to the spark plug. then I held the nail close to the block and had someone start to turn it over and it sparked just fine.. I even took a wire from a cylinder that the light did flash on and put it on #1 and it did not light up. So I eliminated the wire as the problem..
so I am at a lost... The engine does not appear to be missing.. it sounds great but since I had to remove the dist to put new seals in the manifold. I need to time the engine again.
That is very strange! The best way to check for spark is with a spark tester. It will make the coil work under load just like when the spark plug is firing in the cylinder full of compression. Have you swapped the spark plug or distrubutor cap? Pull that #1 plug and see what it looks like.
Posted by Steve da Wrench (Member # 1301) on :
How strong of a spark do you get? hold it about a 1/2 inch away from the head, and you should still get a nice hot spark. You may also have a shorted plug, that could make the voltage low, and not trigger the light. BTW, the Mallory is a piece of crap, and that may be what is causing your wierd problems as well. What kind of wires do you have? Sometimes they can be thick enough to not allow the magnetic pulse to trigger the light. Try a stock type wire on that cylinder. Also, if all else fails, make sure you have good compression in that cylinder. Good luck! Posted by zleviticus (Member # 1648) on :
I will change the plug out tonight... I will also stop by and get a spark plug tester.. one of those inline ones and check it out and see if I am getting spark to the cylinder under full compresion.. the cylinder is good with great compression... I have swapped the dis cap thinking it might have been cracked or something and still same thing...
mallory is what was one it when i bought it.. I can't afford to upgrade right now... I thought about going retro and using the original coil and points distributor... but don't want to if I can...
the wires are the ones that come with the dist.. the suppression core ones... see I moved the wire to another cylinder and tested it and it worked fine.. I bet it might be the spark plug... I will try it out tonight and let you know how it goes...
Posted by 2002Z4CSS (Member # 1393) on :
quote:Originally posted by zleviticus: I will change the plug out tonight... I will also stop by and get a spark plug tester.. one of those inline ones and check it out and see if I am getting spark to the cylinder under full compresion.. the cylinder is good with great compression... I have swapped the dis cap thinking it might have been cracked or something and still same thing...
mallory is what was one it when i bought it.. I can't afford to upgrade right now... I thought about going retro and using the original coil and points distributor... but don't want to if I can...
the wires are the ones that come with the dist.. the suppression core ones... see I moved the wire to another cylinder and tested it and it worked fine.. I bet it might be the spark plug... I will try it out tonight and let you know how it goes...
Just make sure when you buy a spark tester you buy one for HEI or Non HEI systems. Which ever system you have. The tester looks like a spark plug with a spring loaded grounding clip.
Posted by poSSum (Member # 119) on :
Dumb question. For engine timing purposes couldn't the plug firing 5th also be used?
Posted by 2002Z4CSS (Member # 1393) on :
quote:Originally posted by poSSum: Dumb question. For engine timing purposes couldn't the plug firing 5th also be used?
The flash from the timing light probably would not be seen on the balancer timing mark. Posted by zleviticus (Member # 1648) on :
Thanks for all your help .. it was a spark plug.. what are the chances of two NEW spark plugs being bad from the same package? Obviously greater than zero... I now know that you need to buy extra spark plugs and when you test them test from different packages...
again thanks for pointing out that it could be a shorted spark plug.. now I guess I can post my next question.
Posted by 2002Z4CSS (Member # 1393) on :
quote:Originally posted by zleviticus: Thanks for all your help .. it was a spark plug.. what are the chances of two NEW spark plugs being bad from the same package? Obviously greater than zero... I now know that you need to buy extra spark plugs and when you test them test from different packages...
again thanks for pointing out that it could be a shorted spark plug.. now I guess I can post my next question.
They may have gotten dropped or cracked when installing.
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