Engine won't fire up - 1600

[Victordaho]

Hi ppl,

I have decided to join the club, I just bought an escort van (1980), was advertised as a 2 ltr, turns out it has a 1600 kent motor. Have been having allsorts off problems getting it to fire up. Have re-set the gaps in sparkies, points, changed starter, tried to re-set dizzy, and added fresh fuel, but motor keeps back firing out through carby, indicating that the timimng is probably way out. Any ideas????,

The motor appears to be a recon, (thats why I thought maybe the dizzy could be out, i.e. just whacked back in) and the guy said they had fiddled with the carby screws. Apparently it was running before sitting for 6 months.

Cheers,

Vic

[cortina-mk1]

first thing is to determine whether the timing is 180 degrees out

-first take out number one plug

-get some one to hold their finger over it..

-crank engine (without coil lead in) slowly about 5 seconds at a time

-when the person holding the their finger over the plug hole feels a pressure

-from inside or sort of 'whoosh' STOP immediatly.

-check the timing marks if its right it should be pointing to TDC (you may need to turn engine over by hand as the cranking by key may have gone past the marks a little)

and thats is compression stroke on number one

and thats where the dizzy rotor button should be pointing to plug lead

number one

if its pointing somewhere else you know the dizzy is in the wrong spot

towards the wrong plug or its out 180 degrees

[Victordaho]

Thanks for that, worked a treat. Twas easier than I thought, got it fired up in 5 minutes, found n0.1 compression point and rotated dizzy, for some reason the firing order was out too, but thats probably cause we got ourselves all twisted up trying different ways (initailly per manual, that is less than helpful).

Again, big thanks.