Thread: 302 wont fire PLZ HELP

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i have a 302 that will not fire. i have replaced the ignition coil,spark plugs and module and still nothing.ive checked the wiring and the electric ignition it seems to be fine.can i run my ignition coil straight off my battery without shorting anything out?

Did you have the brain box checked???

First of all, welcome to CHR. Secondly, we need more info:

1) Did you ever have the car running?

2) If so, why did it stop or what changes did you make?

3) Year? Carb or Fuel Injection?

With some exceptions, all an engine needs to fire is fuel and spark. Have you checked to see if you have spark to the plugs. One of those $ 5 inline spark checkers can tell you that. If it lights up, you have spark.

If you have spark, try a little shot of starting fluid.

Give us the whole story so we have something to go on, otherwise all you are going to get is a lot of guesses.

Don

the guy who sold it to me said he had it running real strong im not sure of the year of the motor but it has just been rebuilt and its got a holly double pumper mds distributer and coil...4 barrel carb,there are a lot of dead end wires...i cant find a fuse box to save my life lol...i put a light tester on the battery and it lit up but then i put i on the coil and i got nothing...the guy who set up the timingon the distributer had it to where it was barely touching the outside of it dont know if that would be the prolem cause i can see where it had been catching...also a mechanic i had spoken to said not to use starting fluid because it was to dry...i dont know if any of this helps or not im new to muscle but i appreciate the help...im open to any ideas thanks guys

whats a brain box by the way

Ok, now we have something to go on. Fords are wired through a starter solenoid that is remotely mounted from the starter (unlike Chevy who puts the solenoid on the starter). It is a black plastic affair that has two large terminals on it (one in from battery + and another cable to the one post on the starter.

There are two other little terminals on the solenoid. One is the one that you put juice to to get the solenoid to kick in, and the other one is "I" for ignition. Run a wire from that terminal to the + side of your coil. Put your test light on it after that and you should have 12 volts to the coil. Bet it starts then.

BTW, starting fluid if used sparingly is ok, you just don't want to use too much of it. Lots of controversy about that, but I have used it for years and it has gotten me out of some jams.

With your Holley carb you should be able to look down the throat while pumping the gas and watch it squirt though. (engine off )

Don

Originally Posted by treese13

....i put a light tester on the battery and it lit up but then i put i on the coil and i got nothing...

(I'm assuming you probed the + terminal on the coil with the key in the run position and the ground lead of the test light had a good ground)

Does it have a ballast resistor? Most old engines either use a ballast resistor or a resistor wire between the ignition switch and the ignition coil to reduce the voltage to the coil.

If you have a ballast resistor, you can check it using your test light.
- if there's power on one side but not the other, it's a bad resistor.
- If there's power on both sides, the wire from the resistor to the coil is bad.
- If there's no power to the resistor, it's either a bad wire to the ignition switch, a faulty ignition switch, or just plain miswired.

I would not recommend running a coil directly off the battery for an extended period of time unless you know for sure that it's a 12v coil (most stock coils are 6v - many 12v coils are just 6v coils with an internal ballast resistor). I blew-up a coil once because I overheated it with too much voltage - no firey explosion or anything, the can just ruptured and spewed oil everywhere.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck.

ive seem to mislead you guys...the solenoid is not in the starter

With MSD ignition nine times out of ten a failure to start is indication of a bad or non-existent ground. Engine will crank over but no 12v power is supplied to coil or brain box. If the solenoid is bad or faulty, generally the engine will not crank over or will crank over intermittenly. I've experienced both problems.

One thing treese13 never made clear is if he has an MSD Brain box...if he does he needs to check and make sure the box is properly grounded. I had a MSD box that ,keyword here, "had" been properly grounded. When I pulled the old engine that ground wire was broken some how and when the new engine build went back in I could not get it to start....nothing had changed... I finally located the broken ground wire, temped it together and the new engine fired right off. Replaced the wire and never had another ignition problem.

is the distributor in the back like it suppose to be?