So, are you saying that I should keeping turning the distributor? the motor by hand? or something else?

 

Well, this morning I woke up excited, grabbed some kool-aid and headed out to the garage. I immediately tried starting it without adjusting anything but, had no luck there. So once again I moved the car by hand to TDC and looked at the rotor, this time is was facing 180 of last time I set the car at TDC wtf? anyways, I plugged in the wires accordingly and tried to start it, nothing, so I went back to the engine and thought but, then I realized that when the afm had blown off it also took the coil wire with it LOL. So I plugged that back in and tried it, VROOM slowly comes to life, it idles long enough on it's on for me to plug in the afm and adjust the IAC but, then it died as I feathered the throttle. I guess I just have more fine tuning to go? Im really excited as to the progress that has been made, and I only have you guys to thank!

 

So the coil has to be hooked up to start the car?

 

Ugh, it's time for a break. I've been out there all morning adjusting the distributor little by little and walking back to the car to test it. So far I've gotten it to idle for no more than 15 seconds, and when I hook up the AFM I get nothing, kind of pooped right now, feel free to ask questions or shoot advice . Im going to have to dub this car the ZDRIVER.COM SPECIAL lol

 

For the record, the distributor will not rotate 180 degrees without moving or removing several things, the shaft cannot be rotated 180 degrees because the notch and grooves have offsets which prevent that. I've spent most of the day slowly adjusting the distributor, moving the car by hand to get TDC, and double checking everything and getting no where. It seems that when I set the car to TDC the rotor is either pointing towards the afm or behind the thermostat, this doesn't sound correct so perhaps the timing is off, well we know that for a fact but, it's a matter of how much and it what direction.

 

If you install the oil pump drive shaft wrong then the distributor will be off. You cant just turn the dizzy to get it right. You have to drop the oil pump and turn the oil pump drive shaft. With the rotor: Install the distributor cap and use a sharpie or something and mark the distributor body where the #1 cap tower lines up (this tower is marked). Now pull the cap and put the engine at TDC and it the rotor should line up with your mark. Dont worry about anything esle as far as which way the rotor is facing.

So the car will run without the AFM but not with it?

 

Well it looks like I have some more work left to do then. Well it might just be chance that the car didn't fire whenever I had the AFM hooked up but, Im going to go ahead and redo the oil pump line up or something.

 

First check the rotor like I said in my last post. If the rotor lines up that way then there is no reason to take the oil pump out.

 

and maybee get a diff. afm

 

HAHAHAHAHA
It just hit me, the whole reason everything is wrong, it was so plain, so simple, right in front of me. When I first installed the oil pump, I made sure that everything was perfect but, what good is that if my reference material confused me? when I checked the rotor alignment I was going by the picture on atlanticzcarclub and their rotor was facing the vacuum valve, I had no idea about the number one tower, which duh makes sense LOL. Anyways, in the past few minutes I've removed the distributor, sway bar, oil pump, shaft, and im not about to clean everything up and reinstall everything. I will return with updates and hopefully good news. As far as the AFM thing goes, I have two actually, an original 1980 AFM that has been untouched, from my old Z car, and a DIY rebuilt one from the 1979, I have never proven if this one works or not but, anyways Im off to the shop aka my backyard garage .

 

The rotor did not line with properly. I went ahead and took the oil pump out like I said in my previous post but, when I went to reinstall it I lined the two notches up perfectly yet the rotor was 90 degrees off, I double checked to make sure the shaft hadn't moved but, it didn't. The only way I could get the rotor to line up with the number one tower is to ignore the notches and test fit it until everything lined up but, car still didn't fire. Im obviously missing something very big here.

I think possibly Im not getting TDC on the compression stroke or something what is an accurate way to tell this? Im glad to know that the engine isn't a total loss but, now I just want to make sure everything is done correctly from here out. Im lining up the notch in the crank pulley with the 0 degree timing mark, im aligning the oil pump notches correctly, and installing the distributor correctly so how come nothing is lining up the way it should?

 

If the timing mark on the crank pulley is lining up with the '0' on your timing tab then the you've got #1 at TDC on compression. Make sure the camshaft is in the proper postition as well. Both valves on cylinder one should be completely closed. Take some pics of how everything is lining up and post them up here if you can. That will help to really visualize your problem.

 

I will do that first thing tomorrow. bumpidity bump,

 

Whoa, at first I was thinking WTF is HybridS130 It's been a long day

 

Yeah I changed screen names on all forums, aim, and other things but, it seems like my sig decided to stop working again.

EDIT: or not, I thought when you add a sig it changes all of your posts? maybe not i suppose or this forum software could just be different than what im used to.

EDIT 2: I forgot that I had intention of including relevant material in this post. So, today I removed the oil pump, shaft, distributor, wires, cam cover, and of course the oil from the motor. I figure that I should start completely over from scratch and make sure everything is correct. I began moving the motor to TDC, watching the two cam lobes looking for the compression stroke and everytime it seemed like both lobes were off I would check the timing mark but, couldn't see the notch anywhere, maybe it's been a long day but, I'm about to go back out to the shop, I will take pictures of whatever I think might be helpful but, hopefully the pistons/valves are still lined up correctly, I know the block/head weren't moved once seperated so, I don't see why they wouldn't still be lined up. Then again it would be my luck for something like this to be screwed up, after all I did get the car after it had been worked on.

 

Okay, here are a few pictures I just snapped. I moved the car to TDC once but, the second lobe was pointing downwards so I proceeded to move it around again and this is what I got, let me know if you think this is right or not. It's hard to tell but, the actually lobe IS completely off the rocker arm but, some of what I heard said that the first two lobes must make an upward pointing V which doesn't seem to be the case.

I know it's hard to see anything but, this shows the car at perfect TDC on the compression stroke

and this final picture is just an overall view of the engine as it is right now

 

Well theres your problem: You've got no spark plugs and I'm sure that missing valve cover isn't doing you any good

With the engine at TDC Take a look at the perimeter of the cam sprocket. There should be 3 timing marks (usually marked 1, 2, & 3) One of these should have a bright chain link lined up with it and this mark/link should be at the 2 o'clock position (from the front of the car). If anything about your car doesn't match up with the above then you're off. From your pic it looks like the bright link is at 2o'clock but I cant tell if it's lined up with a timing mark on the cam gear.

 

When I put everything back together I lined the bright link up with the number 3 as per Bleach's request, and the cam gear itself is set at the number 1 hole on the camshaft.

Just got back from the shop and the bright link is at the 9:00 position

 

That's your problem. I said to match those. If you put the bright link on #3 on the outside mark, then the dowel at the end of the cam goes in the #3 center hole. Your cam timing is all screwed up.

do you have a timing chain block to wedge in there? If you do, don't forget to put a nice solid eye or hook screwed into the end to pull it back out. It will be hard to pull on so drill a pilot hole so the wood block does not crack. also, use hardwood (furniture grade).

 

DOH! this is probably the 12th thing i've screwed up on this project so far but, it makes sense and at least I have somewhere to start now.

Edit: Is it like that i've broken something or is just the timing screwed up?

 

Im not sure if Im really grasping the concept here, wouldn't I have to pull the front cover again anyway to set everything the correct way? even if I pull the cam gear off that doesn't necessarily mean everything will line up if I set it on the #2 or #3 pin. Im having a hell of a time just getting the gear off around the wood, what pain

 

use slightly smaller wood, the dimensions are in the manual. hammer the wood gently untill it stops. that will stop the lower part of the chain from coming off hence making it unessasary to remove that pesky front cover. why #3 bleach, why not just the stock #1. any advantages?? sorry hybrid i gotta ask.

 

He didn't necessarily say that I had to use the #3 pin, I think that was more or less an example. I did read that section in the book and the suggested dimensions were 10''x3/4''x1 1/2''(at the top) and 1'' (at the bottom). Now I don't have the tools required to cut the wood exactly but, my piece is close enough and it still takes up too much room for me to move the cam gear around. My question though is how can I expect this to work anyways? Even if I can move the cam gear around there's no guarentee that when I rotate it that the bright link will line up with anything else so, I can't help but feel screwed yet again. I accept the responsibility of my F0U0C0K up if I do end up having to pull the front cover again

 

make the wood a little shorter then, i think my piece is 7" or something, ive used it so many times, what a time saver, to get it out, once the cam gear is in just rotate the engine ccw, then fish it out with some long pliers, or if you put a loop in the top, a piece of string. youll get it hydrid, dont worry. your only human, read the thread "im soooooo stupid" and youll feel better

 

Okay, so I cut the wood down to 5-6'' and I was able to get the gear off with ease and rotate it just as easily but the problem now is that the bright link doesn't even come close to lining up with any of the numbers that it needs to, I tried it in all three positions but no luck, Bleach you seemed to have a pretty good grasp on what's going on any input?

Edit: you said that my valve timing might be off by up to 45 degrees, if in fact it is I know what direction to rotate it, should I try and rotate the cam to the upwards V positions of the two first lobes and see where Im at?