HELP!!! Engine Cranks but NO FIRE!

i just got the chevy 350 back into the '74 c10 and hooked it up.
the starter turns the engine, the carb spews a fountain of fuel, the distributer is hooked up as it was before i removed it, i have voltage and ground tested.
the thing wont fire! im thinking since its a super simple engine that its either fuel or ignition, i ruled out fuel because i can see a ton blowing into the carb. it has to be ignition related because i dont even get a pop from any of the plugs attempting to fire.
WHAT DO?
i even tried hooking the distrib's Bat+ directly to the battery!
PLEASE HALP
the engine ran before i pulled it out with the same setup  
=^.^=

restabbed the distrib, rewired, tomorrow im checking the carbs because the floats are obviously stuck open  
=^.^=

first...     something needs to be done about the fountain of fuel from the carb...

without digging through your prior posts...     can you explain what type of carb...

what you fuel pump is like...


and verify that you DID NOT use teflon tape anywhere on the fuel system...

little strands of teflon tape have caused so many carb flooding issues and carb fires... engine fires.. car fires..


i have a trick to attempt to stop carb flooding.. if knocking the top of the float bowl with the handle of a screw driver does not stop it..

i use a long pair of needle nose pliers to pinch off the inlet hose into the fuel pump..   while holding it closed.. somebody starts the engine..    i rev it up slightly.. 2000.. 2500.. as it runs.. its running out of fuel in the float bowl... as soon as it starts to die...   but before it stops.. i release the pliers.. so the fuel pump sends FULL pulses of fuel through a wide open needle and seat.. this is sometimes enough to flush the needle and seat..  

Once you get the fuel flood corrected.LOL. I would go to the starter connections. Make sure you have the wires in their correct places. Then follow the wires up and out of the ignition switch..

Make sure all the fuses are good,FYI don't just look at them remove them and physically check them. I've seen fuses that looked good but were no/good.

I have had this happen myself. There is NO straight answer for it either. You just have to muddle through it. Good Luck.....  

i stripped the carb down and the floats seemed to functioning ok. i went through everything and sprayed carb cleaner in every hole.
on the holly carb with 2 floats, the front one with the main fuel inlet rests on the bottom of the housing where as the rear float sits about 1/4" off the bottom
should i replace the springs? or are they supposed to drop that low with no fuel?
also, when i get it back on the motor, ill check the sight holes to see if the float is up or not.

the starter works fine

factory mechanical fuel pump
holley 80457s carb  
=^.^=

holley has a good video on setting the floats..


setting holley floats from holley on you tube

perhaps this will help...  

I wasn't concerned about the starter.You said it worked. The wires that go to the fuse box for ignition Power is distributed from the starter to your power fuse, to the ignition switch, to the coil for Ignition. That's all.

At the starter there are fusable links also. If any are open you won't get the power to the fuse box to the IGN/SW for the engine to run...I hope I didn't confuse you....
Thanks
Bob  

I bet your floats are misadjusted. You need to know which type of float you have. External floats are adjusted first by removing them and turnimg the float bowl upside down and set screw where you can move a pencil under it just barely. The other type is basically the same if the float is sitting on the bottom while upside down it is too high it will flood. My favorite book I own from autozone which I learned a lot from is haynes holley carb techbook. It is blue and it tells you everything about em. Make you have spark after you fix your flooding issue. Make sure your not in 180 ed. I have done that before in the rush of things. Lol.  

ok i got the carb sorted out and found an oil leak that i also took care of
i checked the spark on a random plug, it sparked but looked weak
so im thinking cap rotor and coil is on the parts list tomorrow
im so tired of trying to figure out why this pos wont fire
it seems everything i do brings me back to step 1, no fire

and before someone new posts, "hey you need to rewire and re stab your distributor"
NO i did it like 9 times already in all sorts of different configurations.  
=^.^=

i am taking that you have an HEI distributer... or do you still have points....



i would like you to do some verifications for me....

check the ground cables...  you will need to remove them and wire brush the ring terminals and reattach them.

battery negative to the engine block...   be sure its tight and the ends are clean.. and that its bolted to a clean spot on the engine block...

battery negative from the battery terminal to the body...   should be tightly attached to the body..  inner fender or core support...

engine block to firewall..   what.. yep..  a really important connection...


now on to the positive side...

on the firewall.. above and behind the passenger side cylinder head..  is a terminal block..  2 threaded studs of different sizes..  dark brown or black spikes sticking up from around the edge to keep the wires separated...   with the battery disconnected.. take all the layers of wires off.. wire brush the ring terminals.. you will find the bottom one has 2 holes in it.. and goes over both studs..   i have found these dirty and corroded..

next.. do you have HEI or points..    

i just changed out an ignition switch on a 73 chevy truck.. it was worn where the ignition 1 circuit is powered through..



this crazy spot for the switch to wear is NOT unexpected..  replacement switches are under 20 bucks at every parts store...  there is a difference between tilt and non tilt columns..   you will need to remove the cover under the column.. then the 4 bolts holding the plate to the bottom of the column .. then the 2 nuts on the stud holding the plate up..

WARNING>.  before dropping the column to change the ignition switch..   IF YOU HAVE an automatic with the P R N D 2 1 display on the bottom of the dash board..   please use a phillips screw driver on the right side of the column to remove the small screw.. then slip the steel clip with the string on it off the column shifter bowl extension ..  

if you drop the column..  and have that little string thing still attached..   you WILL break your dash board.. in a spot that is really hard to repair properly..

this is a major cause of low or no voltage to the positive side of the coil..


why am i telling you to do this.. all this work...  its because i have found these problems on many chevy trucks that i have worked on..  including the one i changed the switch on..

do you have a test light..????

with an HEI.. pull the coil cover ..   shove the probe of the test light into the red wire from the coil...  make sure you don't short to the center wire..  or the other wire.. yellow or white..   ground the clip end..   try to start the engine..  the light should turn on bright as soon as you turn the key on.. and stay on bright while cranking..  and still be bright when you release the key back to the run position...

with POINTS..    clip the ground clip of the test light to the positive side of the coil...   shove the probe end into something so you can see the test light from the drivers seat..   slowly  turn the key on..  when it gets to the run position.. the light should be on at a medium brightness..  when you turn the key and crank the engine.. the test light should be full brightness while cranking..   as you release..  the bulb should go back to a medium brightness..  

now.. on stabbing the distributer..

pull the first spark plug from the drivers side of the engine..       you will need to do this to find the compression stroke of the #1 cylinder...   you can stuff a piece of tissue in the opening. so the upward moving piston when the valves are closed on the compression stroke will blow it out..   or you can use your finger over the hole..  over .. not in..   the idea is to turn the crank slowly until the tissue blows out.. then continue slowly. to bring the crank damper marks to the base timing you want..  

the rotor should be pointing toward the front and slightly toward the drivers side..  if you are standing infront of the grill center.. the rotor should be pointing almost this way.. \   the bottom of this line is closest to you ...

why go through all this problem.. the crank turns twice to one turn of the cam and one turn of the distributer..

this allows you to stick the distributer in and get it right the first time...

########

you can also take a chance...  bring the timing mark up.. stick the distribute in..   it will either be pointing at the number one or the number 6 ...  

#######


if you have an HEI...   once you get the rotor pointing the proper direction..  and the timing marks on the damper are lined up to the base timing..   you can turn the housing to align the tips of the pick up coil with the tips of the reluctor..

this is where the HEI module is going to fire the coil at.....

######

if you have points.   again..  once you get the rotor pointing in the proper direction..   you can turn the housing till the points are just about to open..   you can tell as if you twist the rotor slightly. the points will open...  this again is the point where the coil will create a spark..

i use this knowledge. to drop in distributers.. verify the dead stick timing and that they are engaged in the oil pump..  then lock the distributer down.. i can reach through the window and the car will usually start on the first try..  

Thanks Wayne! im going through the column now to see what gremlins are hiding..

and to answer your question, yes its hei

also, on my starter, i have 3 wires, pos from battery, light brown and a brown wire
i think the light brown used to be the yellow? but there is no way to tell by looking at it (engine bay was covered in oil and grease due to the truck's owner never taking care of it)
i was checking over the connections late last night and the lighter brown wire broke off due to an existing crappy crimp terminal
i decided to try something and pulled the wire off to the side so that it didnt contact anything
the truck still cranked!, so im going to be replacing the busted terminal with a new one and soldering it on
then reconnecting it to the open stud as it was, if no results, would it hurt to connect it to the terminal that is activating the starter? this is assuming that the light wire doesnt produce a constant +12v  
=^.^=

good news! its firing! but not enough to actually start it!
im twisting the distributor cap and trying again to see what happens
but holy crap! it actually did something for the first time!  
=^.^=

lets stop twisting the distributer....

bump the crank around till the timing mark lines up with probably 6 or 8 before..  on the pointer...


pull the cap...     the rotor should be pointing at the #1 wire position or the #6 wire inside the cap...

look at the star shaped thing on the distributer shaft about 2 inches below the rotor..   turn the housing slightly till the tips of the start shaped thing.. (the reluctor) line up perfectly with the internal star shaped device on the pick up coil...

where those tips align perfectly.. thats where the module will fire the coil..

make sure that when you lock the distributer down.. and put the rotor back on.. that the rotor is pointing at the Number one wire or the number 6 wire..  ..   the truck should start now if you have enough power to the coil...

did you change the ignition switch on the top of the column???

did you do the test light test on the BAT wire to the HEI...

since your truck was originally equipped with points..   after you change the ignition switch..

this is the ignitions switch with a straight column..





this is the ignitions switch with the tilt column..

 

lets stop twisting the distributer....
> yep

bump the crank around till the timing mark lines up with probably 6 or 8 before..  on the pointer...
>i think its currently advanced too much...
>resetting to 6* retard now.. crosses fingers

pull the cap...     the rotor should be pointing at the #1 wire position or the #6 wire inside the cap...

look at the star shaped thing on the distributor shaft about 2 inches below the rotor..   turn the housing slightly till the tips of the start shaped thing.. (the reluctor) line up perfectly with the internal star shaped device on the pick up coil...

where those tips align perfectly.. thats where the module will fire the coil..
>i did align the star to where it pointed to the pickup, it has a slight magnetic pull when it aligns

did you change the ignition switch on the top of the column???
>i thoroughly tested the switch both with my multimeter and physically removed it to see if worn, it looks pretty new!

did you do the test light test on the BAT wire to the HEI...
>yep, looks good!

since your truck was originally equipped with points..   after you change the ignition switch..
>the '74 came with points?
>the motor is a '78 with the factory hei? the rotor looks like its only a few years old and one of those blue Standard branded ones  
=^.^=