Engine cranks, will not start

[mister.highwaystar]

3A-C engine

Where do I look for the problem?

[danzo]

Welcome to the forum, highwaystar. Everyone here is happy to help you out, but we need some more info. First you need to determine what your engine is not getting that it needs to run. Spark, fuel/air mix and compression are needed all at the same time. Check for spark by removing a sparkplug and grounding it. You can do this by duct taping it to a known ground - a valve cover nut for example. Then have someone crank the motor and watch for spark in the plug gap. With the plugs out you can check compression, just follow directions on the gauge.

But the most likely reason a carb'ed car won't start is because of a fuel problem. Easiest way to verify is to spray carb cleaner into the throat of the carb while friend is cranking it. If it runs (won't stay running unless you are spraying carb cleaner) then you know what your engine is not getting. If that's the case you just need to find out why it's not getting fuel.

Years ago I bought a non running '83 Nissan Sentra wagon (aka Shaggin' Wagon Mk I) that had a fuel problem. By spraying carb cleaner I was able to clean the carb out enough so it would run on it's own, albeit very poorly. After a few weeks I did rebuild the carb and it ran like 200 bucks, which happened to be what I paid for the car.

Anyway, try these suggestions and let us know what you find. BTW, what year/color/etc. is your car? Can you post pics?

[mister.highwaystar]

1986 Silver upper, black lower, orange brake rotors & drums, black rims with trim rings and chrome lug nuts. Tried to post a pic, it was to large. I did get the vehicle to run rough today. Never thought of rebuilding the carburetor, that is a good idea. I have plenty of spark so I am in the process of rebuilding the carburetor. In the process I found out that there are two fuel solenoids which are in the closed position. It appears as if they both need power going to them to be open, the primary solenoid has two wires, while the seconadary has only one. I turned the key on after disconnecting the power to the electric fuel pump, I then found power coming in for the primary solenoid.
Has anyone had any problem with these fuel solenoids? If so, how did they solve it?
So now the vehicle has a freshly built carburetor in it, sweet. But the car still will not start. Going after the fuel solenoids next, both of which will be bench tested.
I got the primary solenoid to open after supplying power and ground to its two wires. Then sprayed it with carburetor cleaner and installed it. The vehicle fired right up after that, drove it a short distance. Shut it off and restarted the car easily. I then hooked up the power to the electric fuel pump, after which the vehicle would not start. It appears that the electric fuel pump is flooding the carburetor.

[danzo]

In an ironic twist my car failed to start this morning. After determining there was not enough spark (more below), I attacked the distributor. Almost everything checked out per the FSM; only the test using a 1.5V battery showed a mild malady - voltmeter read 8.3V when it should have been ~5V. When I slapped in my j-yard dizzy it showed the same dry cell problem, but this time there was an electrical "pop" during the test. After a few dizzy installs to get the timing right the car fires up.

The wierd thing was that when the car wouldn't start the timing light would blink once only when I began cranking. I thought this might have been a bad ignitor, but I'll never know for sure I suppose. After I put in the new dizzy and before hooking up everything else the timing light flashed all the time so I knew I had fixed it. Just be careful to read the FSM correctly when installing, it's easy to get a few drive teeth off causing the car to possibly not start.

[mister.highwaystar]

You should be able to install a distributor into a vehicle, hook up the plug wires and have it running within 4 minutes or less on the very first try. In the country where Toyotas were originally built they never even used timing lights @ the factory. Just hook up a test light between the tach lead and ground. Have the distrubutor loose so that it can be turned, with the rotor near # one so that you can turn the distrbutor in the direction in which it would actually fire with the ignition on. When the test light comes on, simply bolt the distributor down and fire up the car!
No you can set the rpms to the correct spec and then hook up your timing light to perform your tuner transformation.

[scouttster]

For me, it was sludge in the bowl of the carb.
I took the top off the carbuerator and the float chamber was filled with sludge. I posted pics of it somewhere on here..
ITs easy to remove and clean
Also blow and suck on the fuel supply lines - make sure they are clear. Change out the fuel filter.. Suction out the old gas in the tank and use new gas. Good Luck

As far as the distributor goes - I manually rotated the crank to TDC.. Then matchmarked up the marks on the distrib spindle at #1 and inserted it in there and locked it down. I never used a timing light. I drove it around and paid attention to how she drove and would turn her a little back in increments of 2 degrees to find her best performance. She runs like a top.