Hello, I have a 231 Odd Fire in a 51 M38 Jeep. The problem is that the motor will crank and act like it wants to turn over but dosent. I have the air filter off at the time of cranking and I see (gas?) spitting out the top of the carberator (like a small backfire) . It had been running a little ruff so I changed the spark plugs and wires, and adjusted the timing with a timing light. After changing the wires I am not 100% sure that I got them hooked onto the distributor the in the correct order. Are there any sites that have diagrams of distributors or connections to them? Or spark plug gaps and the such.. I don't know the exact year the motor is or what it came out of.. :( I thank you for your help in advance.

Hey, that sounds a whole lot like the problem I had with the same engine a few years back. The float in the carb might be stuck. unfortunately, I caught mine on fire when this happened

this could be a simple case of no/poor ground

it's not turning over or it's not firing? those are two entirely different things.

from your description it sounds like you are turning over but none of the cylinders are lighting off.

The firing oder is 1 6 5 4 3 2