A little help

[sastanley]

One thing none of us Catalina owners like are those damn trailer plugs...Looks like a 27' with the engine location and your avatar pic??

One piece at a time dude, and you'll get it back in order. Those spark plugs need to be replaced and plus 1 on the dizzy cap and rotor. You can get all that stuff here at MMI or we can also cross reference some parts to places like a local NAPA.

My gauge pod on my 30 looked like yours. I replaced the entire thing from the panel to the engine with direct runs and no plugs in the middle. There is a Blue Seas junction on the bulkhead. You can see that in the engine pic..it just takes a little time!!

One thing we can discuss down the road is some of us have eliminated the Ammeter up in the panel, because of the long run of the alternator wire. I put a simple volt meter in its place..if I see 14-ish volts I know the alt is working..don't need Amps in the panel.

[SPNetricks]

Worked on the boat today and took some pictures. The manual gas pump is going to be removed and the cover plate (when it arrives from Moyer) will be installed. I do not see an oil pressure switch behind the gas pump. The carburetor appears to be in working order. While waiting for the flame arrestor o-ring (coming in the same order from Moyer) to be installed, I took a picture of the build number on the engine. February 3, 1976 is what it looks like. The boat is a 76 Catalina 27, so I believe it is the original engine. Also there is a picture of the serial number. The oil port plug is also coming out to be replaced by an oil change kit (in same Moyer order) The email I received told me the order will be in tomorrow, unfortunately I will not make it back to the boat till Saturday. Any comments are welcome as usual.

[SPNetricks]

I went to the boat today and TRIED to start the engine. It kept turning over but would not start. I checked the plugs and they had a spark. So I checked the coil spark and it was yellowish but sparking. I loosened the bowl screw and gas was in the bowl. As I tried to start the engine, (using the choke on and off) it was backfiring out the flame arrestor. Is that the timing? But how? I did not touch the distributor, just changed the cap, rotor and plugs. Could the timing be off without touching the distributor? I believe the wires are correct, clock-wise 1,2,4,3, with 3 being in front of the alternator. What else can I check? Should I move the distributor? I also connected the timing light and and the tab on the flywheel under the off center bolt was pointing up when the light came on. That's TDC? Right?

[ndutton]

You need to be certain the rotor is pointing to the #1 distributor cap post when #1 cylinder is at TDC on the compression stroke.

[roadnsky]

Here is the procedure for finding TDC from Don...

[SPNetricks]

In the first picture is the engine before I touched anything. It shows the spark plug wires clock-wise 1,2,4,3. But the #1 and #2 plug is in front of the alt. on port and starboard respectfully. The second picture shows how it looks after the tune-up. The #1 and #2 wires are not in front of the alt. The #4 and #3 are in front of the alt. on port and starboard respectfully. I believe this may be the problem, but I will not know till I get back to the boat. That arrangement of the wires in the first picture goes against every diagram and photo that I have seen!? That is why I wired it as it looks in the second picture. When I return to the boat I will change the plug wires to resemble the first picture and see if that works. If not, the advice from ndutton and roadnsky will be next.

[SPNetricks]

Well I'm happy to report that my A4 has started and seems to be running well. I had the spark plug wires in the wrong location on the cap. Newbie mistake I guess. Taking a picture of the engine before I touched anything was my saving grace. The old picture showed the right location of the wires. And since I did not touch the distributor...Bingo. Anyway, the A4 is running well and the next project is an oil change. Also need to get a few bugs out the gauge panel. Thanks for the help. This forum, it's members, and the parts I ordered from Moyer are a valuable asset to anyone who owns an Atomic 4 engine.