idle, starting, power problems with my 1980 camaro

[doboy2140]

Ok i pulled a spark plug and cranked the engine, firstly the plug doesnt spark on its own when i put it near something metal itll spark and the color will br an orangish red. Second i put it to tdc (how close i could get it to tdc in my garage) and its not doing the slow and fast turning anymore it turns at a fixed speed but doesnt start. help?

[doboy2140]

p.s. does the way the coil is pointing and the placement of the plugs have any relation, or can i put the fireing order of the plugs in order on the distributor without regards to where the coil points. ?

[Morley]

Coil placement (distributor) dosen't matter as long as you have the #1 plug wire on the terminal that the rotor points to when #1 is at TDC. Providing you then follow the firing order around the cap after that..1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2

[72chevelleOhio]

Originally Posted by doboy2140

, firstly the plug doesnt spark on its own when i put it near something metal itll spark

It needs to touch metal, perferably a clean spot where it has good contact to ground. Then see what color the spark is......were you holding the plug with something?

[89IROC&RS]

checking the sparkplug, pull it out of the head, connect the plug wire, put on a work glove, hold the parkplug, and hold it up against the exhaust manifold so that the threadded part is touching the manifold, then have someone crank it. you have to have a solid ground for proper ground. which the exhaust manifolds SHOULD be, but you could always do a quick check of your engine ground strap

as morley said, coil direction dosnt really matter. the way i showed in my previous post of wiring up the dizzy is the most universally accepted and easiest, but you need to make sure that the rotor is pointing to the terminal with the number one spark plug on it when the number one cylender is at TDC, this is done by removing the dizzy clamp, pulling the dizzy out, and rotating it and dropping it back in. this takes some trial and error but its not that difficult.

at this point put the dizzy clamp back on, but dont tighten it all the way down, have someone start cranking the engine, and then gently rotate the dizzy back and forth until you find a spot that the engine likes and it fires up. once you have it running, use a timing light, or my personal preference, a vacuum guage, to zone in on the perfect timing. if using the vacuum guage, you want to set it to the highest vacuum reading. turn the dizzy until the needle maxes out, then tighten down the clamp.

[Morley]

Originally Posted by 89IROC&RS

pulling the dizzy out, and rotating it and dropping it back in. this takes some trial and error but its not that difficult.

Note: you will need a LONG screwdriver to turn the oil pump shaft so it lines up with the distributor's drive tang, otherwise the distributor won't seat fully.