Need Some Idea's....motor wont turn over!

bad98sst

New Member
Feb 28, 2004
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Ok...I decided to help a buddy work on his 95 Gt today. We were doing an upper
and lower ported explorer intake along with shorty headers. For the sake of easily getting the lower intake off I decided to pull the distributor knowing I would probably end up having to reset it later. After getting everything back together and just trying to eyeball how the distributor and rotor sat, we tried to start it and it acted like it was out of time. Pulled the dizzy back out and set #1 at TDC and repositioned the distributor to the rotor was facing cylinder 1. Tried starting it again and it did the same thing. We decided to try it one more time and in the process of turning the motor with the crank bolt, it hit a "hard spot' and would not push past it.

I can turn the motor over backwards but as soon as you start turning it the correct direction again it seizes at the same sport. Im 99% sure these motors are non interference so the piston could not be contacting valves correct? No bolts were dropped into the intake etc... My only guess is that when looking down the distributor hole it appears a small piece is cracked where the bottom of the distributor seats and this could have got caught up in the bottom end. However it could also just be the way it was casted.

I could really use some help on this one....any ideas? The only thing that was changed between being able to freely turn it over by hand and it hitting a bind....was the distributor being pulled out and re-clocked. Any help would be great Thanks, Patrick
 
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Not sure why you would have to reset the distributor later. Agreed it is in the way but that doesnt make sense why you would have to reset the distributor as you are not doing thing that would require reseting it. you would just need to adjust the timing a little maybe. I would have left it alone if it wasnt in your way.


regardless- I think the reason you are 'locking up' is because you are trying to crank the engine on a compression stroke and it is hard to crank it by hand or breaker bar as it is building compression. Given if there is something broken in the dizzy hole you really need to find out what it is and why it broke. If that gets cleared up then why not just crank it with the key? A few bumps and you would be on TDC.

also- how are you looking for TDC? meaning, how are you checking to make sure #1 cylinder is at the top? just because you point the rotor at the number plug wire doesnt mean the engine is TDC on #1. you need to make sure the piston is at the top where it is building compression. There are ways you can do this. I would take #1 spark plug out and either put you finger over the hole while someone bumps the starter with the key and feel for compression or you can place you pinky in there and try and feel the piston at the top. once you have verified the #1 piston is at the top then set the dizzy in there and point it at #1 plug wire.

good luck-
 
Pull all the plugs out sand see if the engine turns over easily. If it doesn't you have problems that need attention before proceeding any farther.

Putting the distributor back in is fairly simple. Pull #1 sparkplug, put your finger in the sparkplug hole,
crank the engine until you feel compression. Then line up the TDC mark on the balancer with the pointer
on the engine block.

The distributor starts out with the #1 plug wire lined up at about 12:00 with you facing it. Align the rotor
to about 11:00, since it will turn clockwise as it slides into place.

Align the distributor rotor up with the #1 position marked on the cap, slide the distributor down into the block,
(you may have to wiggle the rotor slightly to get the gear to engage) and then note where the rotor is pointing.
If it still lines up with #1 position on the cap, install the clamp and bolt. If not, pull it out and turn 1 tooth forwards
or backwards and try again. Put the #1 spark plug back in and tighten it down, put the clamp on the distributor,
but don't tighten it too much, as you will have to move the distributor to set the timing. Note that if it doesn't
align perfectly with #1 position, you can turn the distributor until it does. The only problem is that if you are too
far one way or the other, you can't turn the distributor enough to get the 10-14 degree optimum timing range.

At this point hook up all the wires, get out the timing light and start the engine. Set the timing where your car
runs best. Don't forget to disconnect the SPOUT jumper connector when you set the timing, and plug it back
in when you finish.

The HO firing order is 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8.
Non HO firing order is 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

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Did you mark the dizzy and block before you took it out? When I did my heads I stabbed the dizzy like one tooth off and it wouldnt start.

Use Jrichkers list to get it set back up again correctly
 
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+1 on the banning

Ok guys thanks for the input. I think the consensus is that if I pull all the plugs and the motor does not turn over freely, there is a defenite problem. This kind of worries me because I could turn the motor over pretty easily the first time and it's typically not that hard to overcome the cylinder pressure with a breaker bar on the crank bolt.
 
Doubt it, it sounds like your dizzy is in the wrong spot, if you got it start up once and it was acting up it was probably a tooth off, if you took it out and re stabbed it you probably stabbed it way off when you tried to do the whole TDC thing. Follow Jrichkers way of finding TDC and restab the dizzy and it should run fine. Next time im sure you'll remember to mark the dizzy and block before you pull it out :D
 
The oil pump drive shaft has a retainer on it. So unless someone has been in the motor before and not replaced it I doubt it would come out. You should be able to see the tip by looking down the distributor hole in the block. If it's not there, well that's not good. I doubt you could get it with a magnet wand but I'd try it before removing the pan. If it's there yank the plugs and spin it. Mike