67 L36 won't start

[John R.]

Well, finally got some time to mess with the vette today. My task was to put the distibutor sheilding on my L36. I reassembled everything and now it will not start. I am not 100% sure I have all the spark plug wires correctly installed on the distr cap, but I did number them and thought I reinstalled the same way. Started it with success once but will not start now after numerous tries. The items I took off and reinstalled are the following: air cleaner, coil, distr cap, spark plug wire grounds, and I think that is it.

Have attached a photo of a wire that I am not sure where it goes. Do not think it was attached prior to starting my project either, but...

Can anyone help me trouble shoot so I can get my vette started again?

[Michael G.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

John,

Loose wire appears to be ground wire to terminal on wiper motor. Still thinking about the engine issue.

[Kenneth T.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

John,

You don't mention if it is backfiring or attempting to start. The firing order is
18436572 and the cyl numbers are cast into the manifold, 1357 on the driver side with one being the front and 2468 on the pass side , again two is near the radiator. See if all is in correct order.

If you had the cap off did you adjust the points? I "assume" there is fuel in the carb, spraying when you push the accelerator. Get back and I will try to help.

Ken

[James J.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

John
You may want to check your ballast resitor.
When replacing my sheilding years ago, I caught the red wire from the coil to the resistor with the sheilding. The insulation on the red wire got sliced, causing a shot and burned out the resistor. Without the resistor it will just crank and crank and never start.

Jim

[Michael G.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

Depends on year of car. Resistor would only come into play with '67 and older. Should the car be '68 and newer believe it would have resistor wire.

[Bob H.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

I have seen the coil wire get caught underneath the rear long part of the shielding when putting it on. If so, as the shielding is pushed into position, you stretch the wire tight and it can be cut and short out on the bottom edge of the shielding.

[Ronald L.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

Given there is plenty of gasoline, and no other things adjusted - and it started once - then it has a focus in the coil, resistor wire, etc.

These are the key items you took off to remove the ign shield.

Basically check to see that the coil is connected properly and is not shorted out as it enters the distributor nor trapped in the shield somewhere.

The other key mentioned above is that balast resistor the wires to the coil trapped and shorted out?

How about the cap and coil wire into the top?

Maybe get some good pics of your connections, what you show doesn't tell me too much.

[John R.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

There is fuel in the carb.

The motor just cranks and cranks, so maybe it is the coil wires and I have a short. Will check it out and get back.

Thanks.

[John R.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

Coil wires are fine. There is one cut in the positive wire but it is at the top where it connects to the coil positive terminal. I took the coil to distr wire off and replaced to make sure it was pushed on far enough, and....

Car started! So more than likely it was the coil to distr wire not on far enough?

[Bob H.]

Re: 67 L36 won't start

Sounds like the coil wire was shorted to the shield and taking it on and off was enough to move it away. Unless the connection was really dirty and not making contact.