GMC truck -pull started with tractor

Weldon K

Member
Need a little help here guys. 1970 GMC 6500 dump truck with 351 V6 gasoline engine, last used 6 months ago would not start two days ago. Battery weakened so got a friend to pull start it with my IH 756 TRACTOR. Rolled it 15 feet , popped the clutch and it fired right up. It ran great for about two minutes then died as I shifted into gear and let clutch out to move truck where I needed it. Would not start with battery so pulled it again nearly 1/2 mile on our farm lane. Never offered to fire again. Gas was pumping through carb. Tank 1/3 full. I put new condenser, contact points and rotor button in distributor today. Battery had been charged and was strong. Still not started even with some starting fluid (ether) sprayed into carb. Coil possibly went bad that quick? Distributor cap? Puzzling because it ran good and then just died. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.
 

I suspect you aren't getting any juice to the coil from the ignition switch. Take the distributor cap off, turn the key on, not to crank, just on. Take a screwdriver and flick around with the points. If the points are open flick the screwdriver blade between the open points. Does the screwdriver blade make sparks? If you see sparks the points are getting juice. If the points are closed push or pry them open with the screwdriver and kind of jiggle the screwdriver blade around while you do it. Sparks? If your finger is touching the metal shank of the screwdriver you will KNOW if there is spark or not before you see sparks. LOL If you don't get sparks there isn't any juice getting to the points because no juice is getting to the distributor or the condenser is dead shorted. A brand new one can be bad. If the points do spark hold the end of the secondary wire, the big one that comes out of the coil, close to metal and see if you get spark while you're flicking the points around with the screwdriver. No spark? Coil MIGHT be bad. If the coil wire is sparking you should be able to hold it a long ways, maybe 3/4 of an inch and see the spark jump.
 
Is the rotor turning inside the distributor? Did you check to see if you have spark at number one plug on the compression stroke at TDC? Jumped timing comes to mind as something to check.
 
First thing I'd do is see if it gets spark at the plugs. If yes, is it at the correct time? If no, it's time to really track it down. Get out the test light. Check for power to the coil, power to the moving arm of the points when open. There should be. Power to the moving arm of points when closed should not be.
 
351 V-8's I had were touchy about too much choke. If you didn't let off the choke at just the right time they would flood & you couldn't get them started til the next day. When I flooded one, I had to pull all the plugs & blow'em off & blow out the cylinder with air down the sparkplug hole. Then be very careful with the choke & gas pedal to get going.
 
I'm trying to think of something that could have been broken by the shock of the pull start. Maybe the timing chain jumped a few teeth? Another possibility is a sheared pin on the distributor gear (if the V6 Jimmies have one.) Have you checked to see if the distributor shaft is turning?
 
Distributor shaft turns. Tried the screwdriver in the points as fixerupper suggested and got sparks. When it sparked at the screwdriver-in-the-points, there was also a spark jumped from the positive terminal on the coil about a half inch to the rubber cover on the big wire (same type wire and cover as a spark plug wire) coming out of the coil and goes to the center of the distributor. I have seen sparks jump from spark plug wires to places on an engine block before. Always understood that this meant a bad wire. Anyhow I got a new coil, coil wire and ordered a new distributor cap as the contact points in it looked a little worn or corroded. The old rotor button's contact point was completely rusted over when I removed it yesterday. Got a new button for it yesterday.
Will get everything assembled tomorrow and then check for spark to the plugs. Carb has gas pumping in it when the throttle lever is moved. Also removed plugs today and they
were not wet with gasoline. Blew out the cylinders anyhow with compressed air.
 
(quoted from post at 20:07:14 01/19/15) Distributor shaft turns. Tried the screwdriver in the points as fixerupper suggested and got sparks. When it sparked at the screwdriver-in-the-points, there was also a spark jumped from the positive terminal on the coil about a half inch to the rubber cover on the big wire (same type wire and cover as a spark plug wire) coming out of the coil and goes to the center of the distributor. I have seen sparks jump from spark plug wires to places on an engine block before. Always understood that this meant a bad wire. Anyhow I got a new coil, coil wire and ordered a new distributor cap as the contact points in it looked a little worn or corroded. The old rotor button's contact point was completely rusted over when I removed it yesterday. Got a new button for it yesterday.
Will get everything assembled tomorrow and then check for spark to the plugs. Carb has gas pumping in it when the throttle lever is moved. Also removed plugs today and they
were not wet with gasoline. Blew out the cylinders anyhow with compressed air.

You keep saying gas pumping through carb. Yet you pull the plugs after all that gas ran through and they are dry? How can that be? if your float bowl is full of gas, and that carburetor has an accelerator pump which I expect it does, when you manually operate the throttle you should see a squirt of gas go down the throat. Do you?
 
When I move the throttle lever on side of carb. , fuel jets into the carb.throat. Thats how I know that fuel starvation from empty tank , failed fuel pump, etc. was not problem.

Anyhow, today I installed the new coil and distributor cap. Tried starter and engine started up in three seconds. Shut it off and restarted it several times. Engine started quickly every time just like it should.
Starts and runs with new coil, died and never started again with old coil.....hhhmmmm.
Evidence is pointing to old coil having failed .

Just for heck of it, I put the old coil to distributor wire back on it to see if that wire was bad as it had sparked through the rubber covering yesterday when I did the screwdriver in the points test. Engine started right up , so the old wire was not bad. I'm going to put old distributor cap back on it and try it with the new coil just to see how it starts and runs. Then I will put the old coil back on it with all other new parts to verify old coil went bad as I believe.
 

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