No Timing Signal On Driver Side???

What is happening? I’ve done the timing on this Dauntless 100 times. I get a signal/flash on every wire on the passenger side but not any on the driver side. I just went out and bought a new timing light and no difference. It’s running decent so I’m positive that it’s getting spark. WTF?

 

At least you know it wasn't the timing light

Are the wires all the same kind? I can't imagine why the light would not trip on any wire getting spark. You only need it to trip on the #1 wire. I would switch out a wire from the bank that is tripping the light and see if that changes anything.

 

All new matched wires.

 

Here’s another weird thing. It idles fine but just went around the block and it ran like crap. The timing shows around 0 on cylinder #4!?!?

if 180 out I didn’t think it would run well even at idle?

 

You said you’ve successfully checked the timing on this engine a bunch of times before, and that you just installed all new plug wires, and it idles fine but runs poorly... was it running fine before changing the wires? What made you decide to check the timing? Have you made any other recent changes, etc?

 

Yes. I changed LOTS. Blown head gasket so it all came apart. New cam and lifters. The wires are a couple months old. So new but not brand new. It all came apart....

 

Well the 180 out theory is busted. I flipped it and now engine just backfires and will not start.

 

Scott,
Does your Coil check out OK ?
Send a Pic of your Cap & Rotor , if your re using those ?
Also , Any side to side play in your distributor shaft ?
Also , believe it or not, make sure that your block to battery ground is good & clean.
Do you have a vacuum advance ? If so, remove the hose , plug it with a golf Tee, and set your timing using # 1 wire.
Now that you've got your base set, the problem will be somewhere in the ignition area listed above.

 

How does one check the coil?

I am using the cap and rotor with Pentronix.
I will check/clean/tighten the grounds.
Distributor shaft seems fine.
I did have the vacuum disconnected and plugged.

 

With an ohm meter. Put it on the lowest ohm setting & your leads on Pos. side & neg. side . Should read ~ 1.6 ohms. then neg. lead to neg side , pos to center. switch ohm meter to 200 ohms . This is the high output . Should read .8 to 12.0 ohms.

 

Are you plug wires on the correct spots on the distributor cap

 

Humm,?? Just thinking, look closely for any cracks inside the dist cap. The spark will jump to cracks and follow them the same as it will jump to the cap post from the rotor. Also if any coolant with antifreeze should accidently get into the dist cap, the coolant will dry and leave a conductive film inside that the spark current will jump to and cause miss fire.
Another question for you to think about. With all the dead wires on the right bank, are all the wires next to each other on one side of the dist cap? or are the dead wires at random post around the cap? and why would it be that way?
Look for the surprise, most unlikely cause.

 

This. A 225 needs the correct firing order, of course, but due to the odd fire design they have to be in the correct position on the cap as well.

 

If you yank the plug wires one at a time while the engine is running, do you feel a miss for each one? That's my usual check if I'm getting each cylinder to fire.

 

Update.
While putting on a new distributor cap this evening I noticed the contact area on the coil wire was not deep enough into the distributor cap to make good contact. I simply push the wire into the rubber cover about 3/4 of an inch and everything is working well now.

 

sometimes the simplest things can be the worst to deal with. glad you got it working well again!