I've been reading these forums trying to figure out how to get this thing started. I drove it a week ago and it wouldn't start again. I pushed it to my shop and here's where it gets strange. I read the forums because I know nothing about 3 cylinder engines. Fuel was fine so I start to check the timing. I couldn't reach the distributor so, back to the forum. I find out there's a cover in the bed of the truck. I never even noticed it before. Voila! There's the distributor. While reading about timing I found out the timing mark is on the flywheel. I'm already confused. I pulled the front plug and put a wooden rod down the hole to check the piston. I pulled the distributor cap and rotated the flywheel to top dead center. The rotor was way off. I started to turn the flywheel again to check everything again and thought heck, I'll just bump it around with the key. Casper showed up. Now remember....the front plug is out and the wire hanging....the distributor cap is off and hanging....I bump the key and the engine started and ran. It was rough but it was running. I shut it off and stared at it. All of my years of experience as a mechanic just flew out the window. It was running on two cylinders with no distributor cap. I put everything together and started it. It runs a little rough but it runs. I shut it off and posted this. What is the secret to this little truck? Is it truly possessed or are there secrets it's not telling me?
If you brought it up to TDC it could have been at either the end of compression stroke or the end of exhaust stroke and could have appeared to be 180 degrees out of time. As to the running without the dist cap, I have no thoughts except that you must have a very strong coil and could possibly be jumping the arc inside the cap. Does it appear to be the right coil and does the dist cap have any evidence of tracking? Fred
With out the cap on it could have been just dieseling? And it would only be 120 deg off as it fires with every 1/3 of a revolution!
Not sure how to put this. He said he brought it up to TDC. Could have been the Compression or exhaust stroke. If it was at TDC on the exhaust stroke, then the rotor would have appeared to be about 60 degrees away from the terminal on either side of it, and would have seemed to be way off. In order for a gas engine to run on it's own (Dieseling) it has to be at least at operating temperature and would not do that on startup. Trying to be helpful here searching for possibilities not trying to start an argument. I do not claim to know all but I have been doing Mechanic work since the mid 50s and have seen some strange things over the years. Fred
Another possibility may be crossfiring because of the proximity of the high tension wiring and the condition of the insulation on them. If there is some point where all 4 of the high tension leads are together could be it. Some of the manufacturers during the 70s & 80s when they started to utilize higher firing voltages, had quite a bit of trouble with crossfiring and electrical saturation and had very specific layouts and some shielded circuits along with better insulation to eliminate problems. Fred
