Distributor 53 Buick

[Brooklyn53]

There's a handy little bracket in the shape of an arrow coming off the engine block and a bright yellow line painted on the belt. It just so happens that when the yellow line and the point of the arrowhead are in perfect alignment, when I remove the distributor cap, the rotor is dead on at the #1 plug.

Now, if I rotate the distributor by hand, while the engine is running, clearly this makes a difference. However if I turn the car off, I can't get it restarted unless that arrow and the yellow line are in perfect alignment. By advancing or retarding the timing even the slightest, it causes the line and arrow not be in alignment and thus the car won't start. So, I've stopped messing with it. Arrowhead point and yellow line equals car runs great, anything else car doesn't even start.

My car runs awesome and sounds sexy. I took it out today for a 45 minute cruise and didn't have any idling problems at all. I did take out all the plugs first and cleaned them off with carb cleaner. The #1,2,7 and 8 spark plugs were fouled.

One thing I have taken note of, as I turn the ignition key, the car cranks but the car doesn't start. It starts as I'm releasing the ignition key from the cranking position. Is there any reason to be concerned here or how and what would cause this? I've also found I only need to depress the gas pedal about 25% when starting, if at all.

[raycow]

Ok, so whoever did the transmission swap was aware of the timing mark problem and re-located it to the crankshaft pulley as on more modern engines. There should be nothing wrong with this modification as long as the timing mark was located correctly. The only part I can't understand is why the timing adjustment is so finicky. Nevertheless, if you are able to find a setting that works, you may as well leave it there.

Also, either you or a previous owner installed a replacement ignition switch. Without actually seeing it I can't be absolutely certain, but I believe it is wired incorrectly. From your description of the starting problem, it sounds as if your ignition circuit is being fed from the Accessory or ACC terminal of the switch. When the switch is turned to the START position, this terminal does not have power, so there is no spark while the engine is cranking.

You can test for this without having to crawl under the dash, but you will need a helper. If you have a neutral safety switch, shift to Drive so the engine will not crank. If no neutral switch, disconnect the wire from the small terminal on the starter solenoid. Now have your helper hold the ignition switch in the START position while you check for power at the (+) terminal of the ignition coil.

If no power at the coil, you will need to re-locate the ignition feed to the Ignition or IGN terminal on the switch. If this doesn't fix your starting problem, please post again and describe what the back of the switch looks like and also how the ignition circuit is wired.

If you do have power at the coil in the START position, then I was wrong and will have to think about another possible cause.

Ray

[Brooklyn53]

I suspect I've had a wiring problem all along because when I connect the negative battery terminal back up to a fully charged battery. The volt guage on the dash immeditely jumps to 12 volts even without the key in the ignition. Could this be related?

[raycow]

The volt guage on the dash immeditely jumps to 12 volts even without the key in the ignition. Could this be related?

No, I don't think this is directly related to your starting problem, but the voltmeter is still wired incorrectly. Normally, it shouldn't show a reading until the ignition switch is turned to RUN. If the meter is left on continuously, it draws a small amount of current which can eventually discharge the battery. This is if you have an electro-mechanical meter with a pointer. If it is a digital meter, the current draw is about like a clock, so you don't need to be concerned about it.

Ray

[Brooklyn53]

My car actually cranks in the start position. Well, well, well this explains alot. (Why I burnt out my starter, why I thought I needed to install an electronic ignition, why I thought my distributor and rotor were wrong, and on and on....) I've had my car for about 6 months now and just never rotated my key to the start position before. I turned it all the way to the crank position and like I said earlier I noticed that the car would start at the lower end of the crank position but never put two and two together.

The ignition cylinder is a pretty basic universal one. It looks like it could be installed on a lawnmower if you wanted. The back of it has four prongs. One of the four prongs has nothing attached to it. The other three have wires hooked up to them. So which of these wires do I have to make the switch to correct my car from cranking in the start position?

[Brooklyn53]

I took apart the key ignition cylinder this afternoon. On the rear of the cylinder there's an ingnition 1 screw and an ignition 2 screw. The ignition 1 screw clearly is labeled with a Sharpie magic marker "Coil" and has two wires attached to it. One wire is coming from the coil and the other wire is connected to the fuse box. The ignition 2 screw has nothing attached to it. On the opposite side there are three more screws labeled as ground, lights, and something else that is illegible. Is this the correct way to wire a key ignition cylinder?

[raycow]

Sorry, but you've got me at a loss here. All of the switches I have seen of that type had terminals labeled BAT, SOL, IGN and ACC or some quite similar arrangement. If you can figure out which one is BAT (or battery), I can tell you how to determine the others with a multimeter or continuity tester.

Also, am I correctly understanding that the engine will crank when you turn the switch to the start position, but you don't want it to?

Ray

[Brooklyn53]

That is correct, if I turn the key to the start position, towards the right, (In newer cars, this is what as I would refer to as: I only want to listen to the radio position) the engine actually cranks on my car. Now, if I turn the key all the way to the crank position, fully towards the right, it will also crank. It's not until I slowly rotate the key towards the left, that the car starts right before it settles into the start position. Is this normal or abnormal?

It honestly isn't a problem for me, now that I have figured it out. I can start the car right away as long as I slowly rotate the key towards the left.

[raycow]

Brooklyn, I keep getting the feeling that we are talking around the problem here. It's not anyone's fault - maybe just differences in terminology or maybe I am making some incorrect assumptions. If it is agreeable with you, I would like to continue the discussion by phone so we can iron out some of the kinks.

If this is acceptable, please send me a PM with your phone number and best time to call. Also, include your time zone so we can allow for any time difference. I am in California.

If you don't want to put your number on the web, let me know and I will send you mine. I am retired, so my schedule is pretty flexible, although I do need to run out of the house from time to time.

Ray

[Brooklyn53]

I finally located my problem. On the backside of my ignition lock cyclinder, there's an IGN 1 terminal and an IGN 2 terminal. When running a points ignition system, IGN 1 gets hooked up to the coil and IGN 2 gets wired to the ballast resistor. By wiring IGN 2 to the ballast resistor, it cuts off the resistor during start-up to allow the full 12 volts to the coil. On my car, when the points were installed, IGN 2 was never wired, which explains why I was having a hard time starting.

Now since I installed a Pertronix electronic ignition, I didn't need a ballst resistor. In this case, I had to make a jump wire from IGN 1 to IGN 2 and then wire IGN 1 to the coil. My car starts right up with no ignition problems at all.