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'63 Fury /6- Baffling no start after basic tune up.

Noelie84

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Afternoon everybody.
Long time listener, first time caller.
I recently picked up a '63 Fury with a Slant Six, and even though it ran fine I wanted to have a 'baseline' to work from so I gave it an oil change, fresh fuel and air filters, and picked up a basic tune up kit (plugs, wires, cap, rotor). I did the oil and filter changes Thursday evening and drove it to work on Friday. Ran fine, no problems. Saturday AM I swapped the ignition bits and that's where everything fell apart. After installing the new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor it wouldn't start. Cranks strong but won't catch on even a single cylinder. So far I've:
* checked that I didn't dub up the plug wires (order is the correct 153624)
* checked for spark: Strong and blue when I grounded a wire to the block.
* Plugs are wet with fuel. Dried them and reinstalled, still no joy
* Ohm'd the coil, she's sitting pretty at 1.9
* Swapped in a spare coil (I have a '69 D100 so I've got tons of spare parts already) anyway, just in case
* Swapped in a spare Ballast resistor
* Traced every ignition-related wire from the key to the coil, thinking maybe I bumped/broke something old and fragile while I was swapping parts
* Ran a jumper wire from the ballast resistor to the coil, again just in case
* Swapped all of the old ignition components back in, one at a time, just in case one of the new parts was defective (it's happened before)
* Mined FBBO and a few other Mopar pages hoping for a stroke of brilliance from somebody else who's suffered a similar fate.

I still can't get the darn thing to start. This IS an old points-style ignition still, so I have new points and a new condenser on their way. But I didn't touch the originals during my tune up so I'm stumped.

Who can tell me what I'm missing? At this point I've blown most of my Labor Day weekend doing labor, and I'm ready to just close the garage door and pretend the car doesn't exist for a week or two.
 
And also Fuel; plugs are wet.

I forgot to mention that I also pulled the air cleaner off to make sure that the carb was pumping properly, and to make sure it had plenty of air and that the new air filter wasn't restricting flow for some reason.

So I've got the holy trinity, plus good compression. It's why I'm so stumped.
 
Could still be flooded. Hold the choke open and the accelerator on the floor. That is if you still have good spark. See if it will clear out.
 
Since you have fuel, spark and compression and a fresh tune up maybe it's running and you just can't hear it? I know, not that lucky...
 
Pull a plug or two and see if they are fuel fouled.
I'm thinking like kryslerkid , if you have fuel in the carb, air , and spark on the plug wires. It should fire as long as you dbl ckd. Fireing order is right.
Slant dist rotates clockwise.
 
I tried the old "hold it all wide open and crank it" trick without any success, but in the off chance that it actually is just flooded and playing stubborn I pulled the plugs and cleaned them, and I'm letting it sit overnight with them out to give any excess fuel a chance to evaporate.
Fingers crossed for an easy start in the AM; it's frustrating to go from a car that fires on the first crank to one that doesn't fire at all

At least I can still drive the '69 D100; that's easily been the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. Took that out for a drive this evening and was much more relaxed when I got home.
 
And welcome to FBBO.
Let’s see some pics of the Fury when the frustration subsides.
 
Afternoon everybody.
Long time listener, first time caller.
I recently picked up a '63 Fury with a Slant Six, and even though it ran fine I wanted to have a 'baseline' to work from so I gave it an oil change, fresh fuel and air filters, and picked up a basic tune up kit (plugs, wires, cap, rotor). I did the oil and filter changes Thursday evening and drove it to work on Friday. Ran fine, no problems. Saturday AM I swapped the ignition bits and that's where everything fell apart. After installing the new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor it wouldn't start. Cranks strong but won't catch on even a single cylinder. So far I've:
* checked that I didn't dub up the plug wires (order is the correct 153624)
* checked for spark: Strong and blue when I grounded a wire to the block.
* Plugs are wet with fuel. Dried them and reinstalled, still no joy
* Ohm'd the coil, she's sitting pretty at 1.9
* Swapped in a spare coil (I have a '69 D100 so I've got tons of spare parts already) anyway, just in case
* Swapped in a spare Ballast resistor
* Traced every ignition-related wire from the key to the coil, thinking maybe I bumped/broke something old and fragile while I was swapping parts
* Ran a jumper wire from the ballast resistor to the coil, again just in case
* Swapped all of the old ignition components back in, one at a time, just in case one of the new parts was defective (it's happened before)
* Mined FBBO and a few other Mopar pages hoping for a stroke of brilliance from somebody else who's suffered a similar fate.

I still can't get the darn thing to start. This IS an old points-style ignition still, so I have new points and a new condenser on their way. But I didn't touch the originals during my tune up so I'm stumped.

Who can tell me what I'm missing? At this point I've blown most of my Labor Day weekend doing labor, and I'm ready to just close the garage door and pretend the car doesn't exist for a week or two.
FYI.....maybe others have their own opinions.....I had a '63 Valiant Signet, /6, auto trans, 1 bbl Holley carb.....did the same thing, as you.....would not start after tune up, etc......long story short,.....the problem was the plastic....maybe nylon or delrin, distributor drive gear ..it broke....distributor not turning......the fix, replace distributor drive gear....a simple fix as it's attached to the distributor dhaft with a small spiral pin, re-time the position or the rotor to TDC.....started tight away....just a thought......btw...the plastic gear remnants were in the pan until the car was traded......50+ k miles......
BOB RENTON
 
FYI.....maybe others have their own opinions.....I had a '63 Valiant Signet, /6, auto trans, 1 bbl Holley carb.....did the same thing, as you.....would not start after tune up, etc......long story short,.....the problem was the plastic....maybe nylon or delrin, distributor drive gear ..it broke....distributor not turning......the fix, replace distributor drive gear....a simple fix as it's attached to the distributor dhaft with a small spiral pin, re-time the position or the rotor to TDC.....started tight away....just a thought......btw...the plastic gear remnants were in the pan until the car was traded......50+ k miles......
BOB RENTON
He said he had spark. With points style ignition, he couldn’t get spark without the distributor turning/rotating. A broken gear, preventing the distributor from rotating, would prevent spark.
 
He said he had spark. With points style ignition, he couldn’t get spark without the distributor turning/rotating. A broken gear, preventing the distributor from rotating, would prevent spark.
180 out? Did you remove distributor?
 
And welcome to FBBO.
Let’s see some pics of the Fury when the frustration subsides.
Oh, right. My bad. Everybody loves a picture or 5!
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FYI.....maybe others have their own opinions.....I had a '63 Valiant Signet, /6, auto trans, 1 bbl Holley carb.....did the same thing, as you.....would not start after tune up, etc......long story short,.....the problem was the plastic....maybe nylon or delrin, distributor drive gear ..it broke....distributor not turning......the fix, replace distributor drive gear....a simple fix as it's attached to the distributor dhaft with a small spiral pin, re-time the position or the rotor to TDC.....started tight away....just a thought......btw...the plastic gear remnants were in the pan until the car was traded......50+ k miles......
BOB RENTON

He said he had spark. With points style ignition, he couldn’t get spark without the distributor turning/rotating. A broken gear, preventing the distributor from rotating, would prevent spark.
Yeah, the dizzy is definitely spinning correctly.
180 out? Did you remove distributor?
Negative to both; during my "Crap, did i screw that up?" phase I put cylinder one at TDC (yes, on a compression stroke ) and the rotor was right where it belonged.

I'm crossing my fingers for a flood problem, and barring that I'm crossing my toes for a spontaneously bad condenser.
 
Are wires on distributor cap indexed properly? Rotor installed correctly?
 
FYI.....maybe others have their own opinions.....I had a '63 Valiant Signet, /6, auto trans, 1 bbl Holley carb.....did the same thing, as you.....would not start after tune up, etc......long story short,.....the problem was the plastic....maybe nylon or delrin, distributor drive gear ..it broke....distributor not turning......the fix, replace distributor drive gear....a simple fix as it's attached to the distributor dhaft with a small spiral pin, re-time the position or the rotor to TDC.....started tight away....just a thought......btw...the plastic gear remnants were in the pan until the car was traded......50+ k miles......
BOB RENTON

Not pertaining to the OPs problem but on occasion I would find the gear cracked right at the split pin. Opon acceleration the engine would really act up like there was a bad fuel or ignition problem. The gear opens up at the crack and changes the timing. A hard one to diagnose if you didn't know that it was a common problem with the /6.
 
I would also think about a weak coil or condenser
 
If it ran prior to you fixing it, go back through what you did.
Plug wire order
Gap
Points dwell gap is critical to get it to run.
Are you getting spark to every plug?
Correct cap and rotor?
Swap back in the old parts and try.
 
VICTORY!
I let it sit overnight with the plugs out to let any fuel in the cylinders evaporate, and when I put them back in this AM it fired right up. I think a carb rebuild (or at least a very thorough cleaning) is in my future, though, because I've never had a car flood that badly.
Now I feel a mixture of relief that it was that simple of a fix, and of sheepishness that it was that simple of a fix.
 
VICTORY!
I let it sit overnight with the plugs out to let any fuel in the cylinders evaporate, and when I put them back in this AM it fired right up. I think a carb rebuild (or at least a very thorough cleaning) is in my future, though, because I've never had a car flood that badly.
Now I feel a mixture of relief that it was that simple of a fix, and of sheepishness that it was that simple of a fix.

Now take the day off and enjoy the Holiday!
 
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