I'm having some trouble starting my 1980 Federal Vanagon, which had its engine rebuilt in January. It ran great, but had pretty poor gas mileage (10-12mpg) so a couple weeks ago I replaced the air intake to manifold boots, and the S-boot, which I had not replaced during the rebuild (the old boots had several cracks)
Started the engine up- fired up great as usual but there was a very loud squeaking which I decided was coming from the distributor using a rubber hose as a stethoscope. The rate of squealing increased with RPM, so I believed it to be mechanical rather than a small vacuum leak which would (I believe?) get quieter with higher RPM.
In any case, I threw new parts at the problem- I replaced the stock distributor (with points replaced with Pertronix Ignitor) with a new distributor from Pertronix.
After dropping the new distributor in the engine does not start. Unfortunately the engine still does not start if I put the original distributor back in.
I'm at the end of my rope here and I'm not sure what else to try. I know all it takes is fuel + air + spark to start an engine but as far as I can tell I have them all. Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Here is a list of things I've tried:
- checked primary & secondary resistance in coil (per Bently, in spec)
- verified a healthy spark at each of my plugs (by pulling them out and grounding while someone cranks the engine)
- verified fuel pressure and fuel delivery rate (per Bently, in spec)
- quadruple checked that my distributor drive gear is correctly aligned and that the distributor rotor points to the number 1 cylinder, TDC when cylinder 1's valves are both closed
- quadruple checked the order of the spark plugs on the distributor cap
- statically timed the engine for 7.5* BTDC
- verified injectors are spraying
- danced the spark plugs 90, 180, and 270 degrees around the distributor cap
Max