Calling Rob Love or others with info... Jeep F-head engine

[Grant Bowker]

Recalling your frustrations with getting a certain 261 Chevrolet in a Cab 11 to fire up, have you made not just 100% but 200%, 500% or even 1000% certain that both the oil pump and the distributor in the M38A1 have offset keys to prevent the distributor being installed 180 degrees out of phase?

[rob love]

Pull number one plug, and turn over the engine until you feel compression. Then continue turning the engine over (the fan will be fine) until you align the marks. Now you are on no1, and the rotor should point at the no1 position on the cap.

One oddball thing about the Jeeps are that the rotor travels counter clockwise. Very easy to mix no 2 and 3 wires, which will give the effects you describe.

The Willys is overall simplicity itself.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

My stupid question, is the ignition actually firing?

When I've had similar no run situation on the list to check is that all the plugs are firing.

Test tool is made up of a strip of steel with 6 holes with spark screwed into the strip, the strip makes it easy to get a good ground. Attach leads to the plugs and slowly turn the engine over. If all is good then all the plugs fire.

No spark hook coil lead to one plug and turn engine over should fire the plug.

No spark then step two provide separate 6-9-12 volts directly to coil and repeat.

Of late I've been having problems with the points causing no spark.


Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

.....1000% sure the tang is offset on the shaft and can only go in one way. since the pump was already indexed when the engine was running in the crate the dizzy as to line up.

Just to be sure, on Saturday, we removed the dizzy and tried to re insert at 180 off set and the pump would not go in .

Phil....... we cleaned up the points and verified that there was a healthy spark at the points when the engine is cranked over.........re-installed the rotor pointing approximately to the number one location...... re -instal the cap and checked for spark at the spark plugs by holding the disconnected water proof wire with the bare wire sparking on the block....all plugs were checked for spark. Tighten everything up and cranking only gave us some poof and woosh from the carburator.

We can easily crank the engine using a breaker bar and a socket on the front pulley to the timing mark not marked in yellow paint.

Aware that the dizzy turns counter clock wise..... so the rotor poins to plug wire number 1.... the next over to the left is wire no#3 than down to wire 4 and finally to wire 2.......1342 firing order......

When the rotor is inline with the upper RH corner and we turn the front pulley one full turn to the timing mark.......the rotor comes to stop at 180 degrees near number 4....one more turn of the pulley to the first timing mark the rotor now points to 5 BTDC in line with number 1 location.

I am now considering pushing the jeep outside. the confine of the heated garage and...... disconnect the exhaust flange....... and try spinning the engine with "ETHER".................

We have confirmed that the pump pushes fuel to the carb....

We have spark at the plugs

Engine is set at 5BTDC

Carbs sucks nicely when engine is cranked.

?????????????????

[David Dunlop]

Probably a long shot, Bob, but is your head gasket OK? Normal compression in all four cylinders?

David

[rob love]

Down to 4?


Number one should be on the bottom. Number 3 should be to the right of that, number four should be at the top, and number two is left of that.


Of course, it all will depend on where the oil pump got installed, but the photo below is pretty much the standard installation. With the 60 amp alternator, the single pin power supply connector will almost touch the alternator.


I'll check my own Jeep this morning and confirm the photo. Again, checking for compression and setting number one should do it.

[rob love]

If the timing is not the problem, then two things that I might add.

Make sure the plugs are dry. When they get soaked, they can act up. Pull them and you can dry them with a heat gun or light application of a propane torch.



Also, if you ran it on regular (ethanol) blend fuel last year, and that fuel was sitting in the carb, there are two little diaphragms on the carb that can get effected by the ethanol. They are held on with 4 screws each, and are on the front and back of the carb as it is located on the engine.



I have also seen crappy coils. The original autolite coils were good, but towards the end more and more of the stuff came from offshore. There were bad coils, and the caps had to have the holes enlarged to get them to fit in the covers. You can usually tell the bad caps as guys will have installed them with just 2 screws and the rotor will rub and break on the now offset cap.



I still think that your timing is the problem.



In all my years, I did see one engine break the phonelic timing gear under the front cover. But that was rare in my books. It was on an in-service Jeep at that. I used to hoard all Jeep parts back then, and the repair was done in about an hour or two. I worked faster back then....today that would likely be an all day event.