Sunday, May 13, 2007

Starting troubles


I've run into one problem after another while trying to get the engine to start, beginning with the comical and moving toward the more serious. The horn automatically honked when the battery was first connected (insert Little Miss Sunshine joke here), the starter solenoid was stuck (one of the few electrical jobs where a hammer is the appropriate tool), and the carb had a bad gas leak -- all easily diagnosed and fixed. Then the bulb on my timing light went bad so I had to go buy a new one. You can waste an entire day with this kind of stuff, and I did. I set the timing and everything looked good, so I pulled the distributor rotor and cranked the engine for a minute or so to prime the system. No apparent oil pressure. Cranked some more and then pulled the oil pressure switch. Oil isn't even getting to the switch. Cranked some more...nothing. Primed the system through the oil pressure switch hole with about a half pint of oil...still nothing. Bad oil pump, or the wrong oil pump? Oil cooler seals restricting flow? Am I just impatient and not cranking the engine long enough to establish pressure? Gotta have a talk with the mechanic tomorrow.

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