Our son has a pretty clean '62 falcon ranchero that he uses for work and school (he works at the fuel dock in Newport harbor! what a job, working in his swim trunks, pumping fuel/gas in yachts all day and fishing when it's slow) but the car had an electrical short that was driving me nuts. Finally this weekend I tore the original loom out of the car, cut off the factory tape and tried to find the problem...nothing. Wire still looked very nice so I taped everything back up and started over. Long story short, it was a chicken shit wire in the steering column that had rubbed through the insulation. Drove me absolutly crazy, but it felt soooo good to finally solve the problem. 

The plan is something like this, connect the ballast straight to the battery, go from the ballast straight to the coil, turn the key to spin the engine, look for spark, I am freaking that the engine has spun so much without it ever starting, I just want the thing to run to break in the cam, I can make it right after that. It has to be something stupid - other than the mechanic!   

what i did was put a test light on the neg side of coil and crank the engine and it did not pulse so no spark. after the repair it pulsed like it should

you get'em rod were pullin for ya

I am sellin some wheels if anyone is interested...

Looks like this guy is trying to jack your thread 

I am sellin some wheels if anyone is interested...

I was waiting for that, took ya' long enough...  



marcsrolling came over to my house today, mainly as just a bro showing support but he also helped out where a lot of strength and we bounced thoughts on what was going on with the engine between us.

My MSD 6AL was ****ed up, with only the 6AL's power, ground, and the tach wire hooked up it made the coil emit a constant rapdi fire spark come out of the coil irregardless of whether or not the engine was turning over/running or not. I disconnected the 6AL, used the single points distributer and the MSD Blaster 2 coil and it had decent spark. Water leaking everywhere. Got the engine fired up but only for about 2 seconds, I regapped the plugs from 40 to 28 and it ran - like sh!t. Played with the timing a little, played with the choke a little, it wouldn't idle, had little power, ran real rough, gear drive sounds good    , I got the engine to run around 2500 RPM and I held it there, by hand, because the carbs idle adjustment wouldn't give enough gas to the engine to keep it running. It had several backfires, fires in the carb, spits, spudders, the engine just generally barely ran. At about 5 minutes Marc noticed and pointed out a lot of steam coming out the breather. At about 10 minutes I noticed the "tripey" looking bubbles on the cement behind the boat. At about 15 minutes Marc noticed and pointed out the oil coming out of the oil pan gasket. About 3 minutes later I noticed the water shooting out of the oil dipstick tube when I removed the oil dipstick. At about 23 minutes I asked Marc to shut the engine off (he was at the key switch) and I let go of the carb and it died before Marc turned the key off. The engine ran for about 23 minutes varying from 2000 RPM to 2800 RPM ('cause it ran like sh!t), not sure if the cam is broke in.  

Marc and I then spent the next ? 45 minutes and removed then engine from the boat. Tomorrow afternoon the engine is going to a reputable performance mechanic. He's going to access what the engine needs, what I did wrong, where..., why..., how..., etc...

I would rather "go out" with honesty and get trashed for being a sh!tty mechanic than live with a little white lie.  

The good news is that my engine is no longer in the way for me to clean the bildge and pump!  

Sounds Familiar   I hope you don't have the bad luck I've been plagued with.  I wish I had opted for a having a professional do mine now, but then again I have learned a lot about my engine.  I assume you triple checked the fireing order, I had that problem, and have heard a few other people with similar sounding problem find that to be the reason. a couple mixed up wires will cause the backfires and bad idleing

I am sellin some wheels if anyone is interested...

Now that is some FUNNY SHIZNIT right there.. LMFAO!
Hang in there Hotrod...You'll be in the water in no time!!

... Hang in there Hotrod...You'll be in the water in no time!!

Yeah I will, with an outboard!      

I thought that a machine shop did your long block, no?

Yes, I had all the machine work done at a shop, but I did all the assembly myself.  I was mainly referring to the valve kissing piston problem I went thru.

Yeah I will, with an outboard!      

You said it best...........Ohhhh the IRONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sellin some wheels if anyone is interested...

What kind of wheels ?

-beerjet-

They are old school Cragar SS's, but they only fit boat trailers for boats with outboard engines. Sorry Beerjet. Hey, I heard you were looking for a tandem trailer.   

Yup 

-beerjet-