Car won't start!

[rnoswal]

Well you need fuel, spark and air. Sometimes the connector from the distributor doesn't make a good connection and won't fire. Make sure the ground wires are back on under the intake. There may be two sets of wires with eyes on them that aren't bolted on and it won't start without the ground. The airflow meter has to have a good plug on it too.

Start at the beginning and make sure the front cylinder is at tdc on its compression stroke and then put the timing mark about ten degrees after tdc. Put the plugs in, make sure they are in the correct firing order, 153624. Check to see that the plug to the coil pack is plugged in. As the wiring gets older and mor brittle, some of the plastic locks break and don't keep a good connection so you may have to wiggle connectors while turning the engine over.

The timing has to be close though or it won't start. If it is 180 degrees out it will back fire so you know at least you are getting fuel and spark, but the timing is off. The cams have to be set too. Again #1 piston tdc, align the notches with the dots on the cam gears and get the timing belt on without moving the cams. There are ways to make sure the cams are timed just right by moving the gears and the dowel pins, but you have to know what you are looking for as far as timing belt tightness and correct cam gear timing. So just do the basic cam timing and even though the cams may be off just a bit they shouldn't be off by even one tooth.

The engine is a non interference head so you won't bend a valve by having the timing off, but it won't run either if they are off. By this time the distributor is going to be off so you should have marked it first, but if you didn't then you should leave the bolt a little loose and when you think everything else is right, have someone turn the engine over and move the distributor slowly one way or the other and see if you get anything.

Let us know how it goes.

Russ