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It sounds like you have several problems perhaps some of them at the fuse box. Did you ever clean it up as was suggested in another thread? I am not sure how well the suggested cleaning process will work. I removed the metal pieces from the holder, wire brushed them, and soldered all the joints together. That was at least 5 years ago, and no problems since.

My problems were more power not getting through at all, not shorting out somewhere. But then it mostly was very cold, dry weather where I wasted time on worrying about the fuel line freezing. It sounds like the power you need for the spark is shorting out somewhere. The previous owner may have made up for shorts and bad connections by jumping the ballast resister. If there is anything I hate, it is tracking down rigging and making it right. It is possible the short is after the coil, in the distributor or something. With the points open, it should be an open circuit from the coil primary to ground.

And yes, if the gap is right, the dwell should be too. The dwell is a more accurate way to measure it, but requires a meter.

One more thing. Distributors can become so worn, they don't work right. Grab the shaft and see how much slop is in it.

I'm with you(Labman) on trying to clean up others messes on used vehicles. I did take the fusebox apart & lemon juice it. Didn't solder the rivet plates as the solder & tip I have r so bad that the solder wasn't sticking, even when the copperwas ruffed up some. But the rivet plates are on flush & tight. The points were regapped by my dad and they must have moved on him as they were at .035. Now are set at .018. The rotor points to #1 on the cap when the crank marker is lighned up with 0 degrees TDC. The coil wire has seperated at the boot side for the cap. I can see the split so thinking some moisture has gotten in there or I lose alot of spark from it when the coil wire is under a load. Is that proper thinking?

Update: The ballist resistor is at 1.8ohms so fine. Also the voltage when starting at the + coil terminal is 10 then at 5.5 when ign. switch is in the on position. So ran the jumper the previous owners had bypassing the ballist resistor(without it, the resistor housing was getting hot) and now getting 10.5 when cranking & 5.5 when in the on position. We then cranked it and it kinda started. But the #1 plug wire wasn't on the #1 plug yet. The plugs were gapped to .035 by my dad, now he is setting them to .030 and #4 plug(on comp. test it was 20 psi lower than the other 3) was alittle oily. Recharging the battery as it is low for cranking due to so much turning over without firing up. Good thing the batt. is new. I'm finding hope thanks to you awesome people and this site.

Would a crappy vaccum prevent enough gas from the carb to the engine? The hoses have split's where they attach to the nipples and the EGR valve seems to have a hole on the bottom where some moron put a piece of hard plastic in it. I assume this could be creating the pooling of gas/fluid at the bottom of the intake manifold, as well as preventing the engine from starting

Vacuum leaks usually only cause rough idling. I guess if it was bad enough, it could. May as well fix it.

More than likely a worn intake to head gasket would be the problem of lack of gas into chamber?

No.You would be seeing oil in coolant or coolant in oil before than that.Have you done an compression test? Checked timing putting cylinder number one on TDC(top dead center) and checked where your rotor is pointing(should be at or just before cylinder 1)?

compression is 170 1,2,3, & 145 @ 4. #1 @ TDC is rotor 5% retard of #1 on cap. Alittle oil on #4 plug. I'm not giving up. But Damn....

a hole in the EGR could be causing part of the problem. i have my emissions stuff removed. and the plate that blocks off the EGR on the intake manifold started to leak and i couldnt get the truck to run worth a crap because the suction through the carb was reduced since air was coming in through the egr port plug that up asap

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Is the valve under the intake? I noticed topside things removed,ect.

Yes, the EGR is under the intake manifold. Here's a pic of it from mine. Its the round thing that has a vacuum hose attachment sticking out of it. Its in the way of cylinder 2 on the head. Sry everything's all grotey, lol.

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My Rides:

2002 Mazda B4000 4x4
1978 Chevy LUV - Sold
1990 Kawasaki EX500
2008 Yamaha TTR230

Just so i'm clear,

to test whether the ballast resistor is to blame, you use a jumper wire from the positive side of the battery and connect it DIRECTLY to the POSITIVE side of the Ignition coil?

what about testing the ignition coil itself?
how does one test that?

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To the Oquirr hills for awesome thrills! Go-go 4wd, Activate!

Yes, a direct wire to the + terminal, and disconnect the regular wires to it.

Test the coil? Usually if the winding readings are good, the coil is good. You could directly ground the - terminal. Connect the high voltage terminal directly to a spark plug whose base is grounded. Alternatively apply and remove 12 volts to the + terminal. You should get a spark. DIY oriented auto stores may test them too.

ok, i pulled the book out of the shed (and dang is it cold out there)

read the section on testing procedure and this is what it says word for word



I checked my coil and the resistor, but i think either my multimeter is damaged or the coil is SERIOUSLY bad.

Primary winding resistance is 7.99 ohms,
secondary is 7.99 and the casing resistace reads 0.00

i also checked the resistor, but i get NOTHING from the tester. no ohms, not even continuity.

i checked continuity on the coil, and i do have continuity from the positive to the negative side, but the center lead port reads nothing. resistance across from positive to negative is 1.5 ohms.


if i have to change the coil, so be it, but i can't seem to find the resistor...

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To the Oquirr hills for awesome thrills! Go-go 4wd, Activate!

Ask them what a 1.3 to 1.7 ohm resistor costs. Any of them will work. Points probably will last longer with a higher resistance. Bought mine at NAPA. Kind of odd that they are both the same resistance Id buy another coil and a resistor. You only live once and Luv parts arent getting any cheaper. Just the way I look at it. Good Luck.

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1980 4x4

yeah i think i will have to get a coil tomorrow. found one at work for 27 bucks. i think i have a resistor lying around my shed that i can use.

OR

perhaps this is the time to just convert to electronic ignition

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To the Oquirr hills for awesome thrills! Go-go 4wd, Activate!

So I'm getting spark to all plug's, but # 4 seems kinda weak. hard to tell if the spark is good enough. So I'm lost. Wont start still. I smell some gas after cranking for a few seconds. Gas in the middle of the window. How do I test if enough gas is getting into the chamber to ignite? How also do I check the intake manifold to see if there is any major air leaks? I have no vacuum gauge. so is there something insode or on the distributor that could be giving me either weak spark, not enough sparks per rotation or spark timing being off from when gas enters the chamber? Points seem fine. only 2 weeks old before the truck wouldn't start. new condenser too, wires, plug's, coil.

I did hook up the new ballist resistor and smelt something while doing a voltage check. It was heating up. ???

If you are getting spark to all plugs you should be able to push start it. Put a tow rope on it and pull it around the block a time or two see what happens. If nothing else you will save your starter a months worth of work. Do you live anywhere near South Dakota? If you push start or pull start it you wont be lowering your voltage buy using your starter. If it wont start this way it sure as hell aint going to start by wasting a starter. Plus you get optimum vacuum to clean out that manifold if you havent already.You never said if it pooled gas or whatever rain-water etc. again from your very first post.

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1980 4x4

Lets get this thing running! You said earlier that you had spark to the plugs. You also said that gas is at the center of the carb window so if it has air it should run. All these voltage measurments are just getting you totaly lost for nothing. Either the fuel mixture is too lean (choke not closing) or too rich and has fouled the plugs. Remove several plugs and if they are wet with fuel replace them all. Don't waste time trying to dry/clean them off because once they are gas soaked it is a waste to time, just replace them with brand new, dry ones. I would spend no more time or money until I did this.

Haven't noticed pooled gas @ the bottom of the intake as the carb is still attached. I have no way to pull start it. But will crank it for a few, then pull the plug's to see what they look like. This all just is so trippy to one day run then the next, not.

So I rechecked TDC @ #1 & the rotor points to #1 on cap but I think I have to turn the dist. some as the points are almost to the opening point. Also I pulled the plugs & they are dry after cranking for 5-10 seconds. Yet I smell gas in the carb. Plug's are alittle black from minor carbon buildup from not firing off. Damn. I rebuilt the carb first off. How to I figure out if the intake is leaking? maybe inproper mixture setting. How do I set that to where it will start?