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Hello All,

I have a 1951 M38, was running fine until one day it wouldn't start. Narrowed it down to spark.

So I replaced coil, points, condensor (in distributor), and the condensor in the coil power supply line (noise reduction bit), spark plugs, wires. It has the stock 24v set-up, maybe original distributor.

went through steps to set the timing set by following the instructions on this website and I can't rotate the distributor enough clockwise to get it to start. just about, but won't bite!

I have a full time job and two youngsters and am out of time to work on the girl, I want her running. I do have a checkbook

I would like to find a mechanic in the area of Jacksonville/St. Augustine area to bring her to. As I'm worried the oil pump is not installed correctly and through some trickery it was set-up just enough to run under previous parts.

Anyone know of mechanics in the area?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Phil

Hello Phil,

I moved your post from our parts & dealer rating board over here to the Wanted Board. You'll get more attention with the services you want here.

About your problem, it is quite common. Even many overhaul shops are not familiar with the distributors driven by an oil pump and often make these errors. They are not so much of a probably with the stock civilian round distributors because those distributors don't have our military distributor's bulky oblong housing which has a tendency to hit the block before you can reach your timing mark when the oil pump indexing is overlooked by any technician. Check with your local branch of the MV collectors club for help with locating a reliable local shop familiar with your Willys/Kaiser 134 engines.

Thank you Wes. The challenge is definitely the shape of the distributor, which I can now see makes the placement of the oil pump critical.

Right after I posted this I considered also the MVPA here in FL. There's a small military museum nearby that hosts living history events, have some nice equipment, so I'll get in touch with them too.

I'll continue to check back here as well.

This is what I would do if it was me. Remove the #1 spark plug and put a compression tester in that hole. Take the distributor cap off and rotate the engine by hand until you see compression on the #1 cylinder. Look at your rotor and it should be pointing at your #1 cylinder and than verify your timing mark. This will show if your distributor was installed correctly. If everything lines up and you still have no spark, go back to you points and verify they are set correctly.

Thanks. I have done this, a dozen times. I used a compression gauge, I used a balloon, I get the rotor to point at number 1. The timing marks (notch on the crank pulley) are 180 degrees off at #1 compression. I rotate the crank to the timing mark 5BTDC and the rotor is now pointing at 2 O clock position.

When I get it to compression, rotor at 7 o clock, I pulled the distributor and the large section of the notch on the oil pump in around 9 oclock.

according to the pics here, thats not correct.

Freeinfl you are correct and headed in the right direction. Until the oil pump is properly indexed you will not be able to properly setup the distributor and the plug wires. Then you can install the distributor and time it.

On aside note I have never used any gage to find Top on Compression TDC on any distributor. I have always simply placed my thumb in the #1 plug hole and cranked the engine by hand until the air pressure popped my thumb loose. Once I locate TDC I then back turn the crank to 5 deg before TDC and then install the distributor. Make one final check of plug wire indexing making sure I used the updated illustration not the old incorrect one.

Thanks Wes, I came across the wiring "correction" image early in the process, fortunately.

I can't hold my finger on the spark plug hole due the set-up I have to rotate the crank. The socket I use requires an adaptor that makes me crank from under the willys. I watch the compression gauge from down there and once it budges I know I'm on compression.

I was told to never back-turn a crank. Are you saying that's ok to do in small increments?

So was the oil pump indexing the problem?