will not crank

[yblock]

Ok, it's running. But with conditions. After checking everything again and finding nothing wrong. I decided to give the distributor a big twist. All the way counter clockwise, did not work. Tried all the way clockwise, this is facing the distributor and it started. seemed to run just fine. Check the timing with a light and of course it was way off and after the engine warmed up and the fast idle was gone it would not idle anymore. Tried moving the distributor back to where it was for the nine years i have had it and it would not crank. Put it back clockwise and it will start and run just won't idle cause the timing is off. i even took it out and drove it a couple of miles. had plenty of power. so with crank pointer lined up at top dead center and the cam marks are lined up and the rotor is pointing at #1. Has the gear on the crank slipped and that is where the timing is off?

[FestYboy]

check to make sure the cam button didn't shear off and allowed the cam to slip.

[yblock]

i will, but with the cam gear on it's marks an the rotor button is pointing at #1 with the distributor in it's normal position, there would be no problem. correct?

[yblock]

ok, i pulled the cam gear it's not sheared. i tore it all the way back down an pulled the crankshaft gear. key,gear,an shaft were perfect. what else could cause it to be out of time?

[festiva67mpg]

still thinking coil

hay yblock just reading your thread. I am still thinking it could be a coil because when you retard or advance the timing allot the the cylinder pressers at the time the spark is required to jump the gap are considerably lower then normal and low pressure means low resistance and would not require as much power to actually spark. so I can see how it could run even with a week coil, unless I have mist something in the tread, I would test the coil with a spark tester. one that is adjustable and will tell you how much Kv the coil is outputting hope this helps. let us know.

p.s I had a rather lengthy article on hear trying to help out but I had to download the spell checker and the the forum kicked me off. Awesome!!!!

[yblock]

thanks, but i switched coils with my other car. old coil works fine on other car.

[GenevaDirt]

found this....not sure if it will even help but it is about grounding the sti connection and I did not see where you have done that in the posts you made....

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20438&highlight=timing

[yblock]

update. my car was never mechanically out of time. the pcm or computer is not advancing the timing when i start the car. maybe a broken wire to one of the components that feeds info to the pcm so it knows what to do with the timing.

[yblock]

checked all the wiring from the engine vaf,dist./crank sensor.,ignition module an ignition coil back to the plugs on the pcm. they all tested good. of course it still would not crank. turned the dist. all the way clockwise an it fired right up an ran smooth. like before when the engine got up to temp the idle dropped to 300 rpm an was way out on timing to the left of the pointer about 10:00 position. i said screw it i'm drivin it anyway.made a 5 mi lap at 70mph only noticeable problem was valve chatter when i would accelerate hard. came back to the garge to try to tweak the timing a little an took off again. made it a 1/8 mi to the first turn it died an never refired. but just like before itwas still firing just won't crank.

[yblock]

UPDATE! Fixed! broken rotary button. hold button in your hand with the pointer away from you. there is a raised piece of plastic on each side. break the one on your right off an put it in someone else's car an it won't crank again. when i switched distributors before i must have missed hooking something up or the car was really flooded an i didn't try it long enough. anyway thanks for everyone's input.

[Damkid]

glad to hear you got it going agian

[FestYboy]

it's always the simple things...