Changed crank seals and now I cannot get it to fire (drifter)

[bbap]

I finally took all the good advice related to changing the crank seals on my 1979 Drifter 340 and now I cannot get it to run.

Here's the background.  Owned the sled for about 5 years and it has always started cold on the 2nd pull and warm on the first.  Last year I had one of the cylinders cutting in and out and thought I'd table it to this year.  The other day, I pulled the motor, split the cases and put in new seals.  Put some assembly grease on the new seals, sealed up the case and started reassembly.  On the mag side when I previously had removed the flywheel, I had to pull the Cam (#37 in the manual) off of the crank shaft.  I really didn't think anything of it but when I reassembled I noticed that the cam needed to be behind two small clips and appeared to sit within the flywheel which would be reassembled as one. I put the coil back where I had marked it. I thought to myself, that is strange, I'm surprised it ran at all with that cam placed as it was.  Everything went back together fine.  I had removed the carburetor (which looked good) and cleaned it well.  Pulled about 50x with zero firing.  I put in a tsp of premix down the spark plug hole and still zero firing.  I also clipped off about 1/8 inch of the plug wire end and screwed it in fresh.  Great spark on both sides.  Still nothing.  Swapped out plug/coils with right and left but no change.

Looking for ideas before I pull the motor and investigate further.  My only current thought is I'm not delivering the spark at the correct time (and not even close).  Also, 120psi on both sides and the crank seals, although a little stiff, looked pretty good to me.

Steve

[Checkmarks]

Sounds like you are on the money with the spark delivery.  When you put in petro down the holes and the motor does not fire you have trouble.  Is the motor filled with fuel in the crank case?  Likely not.

Best to test.  Use a auto timing light.  Put permanent ink marks on the clutch with a pointer that identifies tdc for both pistons.  Put the timing light induction line on the sled, use 12v from your automobile.  Now pull the pull cord.  It better flash somewhere close to TDC.  10 degrees before or after is a close enough to get it to fire.

If you have spark.  If you have compression and you personally put in fuel down the holes there had better be a sputter.

[bbap]

Thanks Checkmarks,

I just can't figure out where I went wrong on the re-assembly.  I had marked the stater to the housing.  Has to do with that Cam...  I'll pull the motor this weekend and report back, thanks again.  Steve

[bbap]

It looks like I took a lot longer to get back to this than expected!

I tried starting the engine again on the bench but only backfires once in a while with pre-mix dribbled down plug holes.  Great spark on both side

I don't own a timing light - anymore or I misplaced it so I tried to rig up a simple light in a circuit.  Problem is that the light stays on all the time when doing this:
> connect 12V battery ground to engine
> connect + side to white (or red - no difference) wire that comes off stater
> light comes on
> I then manually open points, light stays on - which does not seem correct.  I would have thought the light would have gone off when I opened the points.

My flywheel is off.  Any suggestions on where I can connect the test light?  Electrical is not in my wheelhouse.

Steve

[kawhead]

I think the cam is installed wrong on flywheel hub,backfire makes me lean that way,compression/fuel is there, good spark from what I understand,thats were i'd go

[bbap]

My plug wires were crossed!  Reminder once again to look at the most simple to the most complex and in that order

[Lloyd (ljm)]

 Glad you found it.

 the simplest things have given my fits

[Interceptor398]

My plug wires were crossed!  Reminder once again to look at the most simple to the most complex and in that order

Good news and good advice.