Took 2 engines and a gasket kit and made one good engine. Mostly took alot of cleaning. I had alot of pieces of apex seal in the front housing, with some nice grooves in the rotor and housing. Anyways...The engine sounds like it is fine internally, but I have no start. I didn't check the dizzy and mark it before I removed it.(dummy) I'm thinking this is my problem. With the leading notch lined up on the pulley, where should the arrow on the rotor face? I put it to face L1 plugwire. Any other ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

There is a tally mark on the dizzy gear and a corresponding mark on the body of the dizzy. Line these up and drop it in.

 

ok I had it right. Thanx for the reply. Still no start.
I have spark and fuel, and have attempted to unflood the engine. The plugs were wet when I took them out. I guess I'll try resetting the idle and mix on the carb? I had messed with it quite a bit when I was trying to start her at first. This was before I looked inside and saw my seals.

 

Pull start that badboy should start right up!!!

 

That's kinda what I was thinking of diong. Since there is more compression now, it seems to turn over kinda slowly. I have the battery on the charger right now for a final try tonight.

 

push start it our have someone pull you down the street,always seemed to work when my 1st 7 gave me hell.

 

if you needs a hand PM me

 

Well, if your plugs are real wet, are you sure you're getting spark?
Also, are you certain that your front pulley was reinstalled in the right orientation? This will also effect the timing... Those are a pain to sort out again on the 12a.

 

Spark is good. I've seen better, but I've seen worse too. I had someone helping me with the rebuild. They put the pullies on, and he said the hole in the pulley was lined up with the pin on the uhhhh, I don't know what to call that part. On my truck it is the harmonic balancer. Same here? oh well.....is there more tan one hole on the pulley? I didn't think of that. Now I gotta go get a flashlight and look, or I won't sleep tonight!!!

 

if it has a grove hole in it it should be lined up right. but also it could be 180'd on the dizzy. i had that problem. not 180'd but the pully wasn't lined up right. so i worked it a little at a time till i got it trying to start. was a pain, but worth it. just had a fully charged batt. and moved the dizzy one tooth at a time and cranked.over and over again till i got it. good luck.

 

The 12a "crank pulley" can go on 4 different ways. While only one is "correct", 2 positions will actually work. If in doubt, you can rotate the pulley 25 degrees, reset\reseat the dizzy and try to start it again. Rotating the pulley is kind of a bitch, so you might be able to just eyeball a 25 degree hand-turn and set the dizzy accordingly, but you won't be able to use a timing light. It is just for experimenting purposes afterall...

 

Well I did start out with that method, kettlman, but the closest I got was a mushroom cloud of fire from my carb! Then I decided that was a bad method. 8)

This has to be something else. The enine can only go together correctly, as far as I could tell. The pulley has one alignment pin, so that is correct. Starting with the mark on the dizzy gear lined up, or doing like I did before and aim the arrow at the L1 plug, this only gives two chances for dizzy placement. Either correct or 180 out. Again, I say it has to be something else. I could very easily be wrong but, I'm going to pretend like I'm not.(for now)

 

jayroc, do you mean 25%? 25 degrees gets you nowhere when you try to fully rotate. You will be at 350degrees or 375/15 degrees. I'm not trying to be a know-it-all, I just think it might be something good to try, if I can figure out what you meant.

 

Oh, ****..my bad man. Yeah, I meant 25%. Dunno what I was thinkin there...
On the 12a's, after 180 degrees of travel at the crank, the dizzy has traveled 360, so, if the pulley is off by 180 degrees, it doesn't matter.
Rotary ignition is very different from a piston motor. It is also much simpler, I think.

 

Anyways, after rereading your posts, I think you got a good handle on the timing situation.
Could be a combination of weak spark and over rich mix maybe?
I would cut the fuel pump and feed it starter fluid while working the throttle to see if it "tries" to start.. It definitely sounds like some kind of ignition problem to me, though. Timing or otherwise.

 

Well I was out looking at her and got my first good look into the carb with sunlight.(working outside at night sux!!) Fuel is puddling up in the carb. I guess the fresh rubber on the needles in the carb weren't seated well.?. Well that explains the wet plugs ,huh! When unflooding, with the plugs out, do you crank the engine over and over until there is no cloud coming out. Either the cloud will always be there, or my engine is reaaly flooded.

 

try dumping some mmo down into the engine, it will help build compression on a rebuilt engine

 

Especially one thats been washed down with gasoline.

 

throw the battery on the charger, im on my way in a day or 2 to help you get it running

cant be anyworse than mine was
well before the autolites ate it

 

That's what happened to mine too. Sux.

 

Nothing so far. I decided that timing isn't the problem. It might not be dead on, but it should start. I guess I'll check compression tomorrow and see if that shows me anything. It sounds good though. The PSST sound is much stronger than before like described in the FAQ's. I have put some MMO in the engine and have cranked it to get that out. It is odd though, my buddy today said it seems like it just doesn't want to start. lol