my 79 with a 305 was running good then it started to idle ruffer and ruffer untill it died. now it wont start at all. i dont know if my battery is turning it over fast enough for a good spark. any suggestions?

 

Lots of possibilites, including the battery if it's so low it wont turn it over. If it's turning it over (even slowly) then the battery isn't the issue.
Start by giving it a jump from another vehicle. If it turns over good, then pull a plug wire and ground it with a screwdriver to see if it's getting spark. If it is getting spark, then repaet until you've checked each plug wire.
After checking plug wires, check the plugs, cap, rotor, to see that all are good.
If it all checks good, and still wont start, then it might be serious, like timng chain, cam, etc.

 

its getting gas but i dont think its getting enough spark. the spark is not jumping the gaps, its shooting sideways to the outside of the plug. they are all new plugs.

 

Sounds like a cap, rotor or coil problem. Is your car a HEI ignition? What year and type of distributor. The coil may be failing.

 

my distributer hold down bracket is missing. my distributer must have moved. you can take it and turn it. how do i get it back to the right spot to get it timed right?

 

Pretty simple actually. Seat of the pants trial and error. Start with the vacuum advance sitting at around 45 degrees to the engine. Then with a friend cranking the engine over, slowly turn it CW about 10 degrees to see if it starts. If it doesn't then turn back where you started and turn it CCW about the same. If it still doesn't start turn it a bit farther each way until it starts.
Once it's running you can stop and install a timing light to get it perfect. Be sure to mark the distributor base and adjacent intake manifold before changing anything, so you have a reference of where you started.
Once you get the timing perfect I like to use a dab of bright paint on distributor and base to always get you close if anything ever happens again in the future.

 

it may have not turned that far. without being properly bolted down the dizzy will not be grounded right and that messes things up. try bolting it down first and see if it helps. ive always brought the timing mark up to tdc and taken the dizzy cap off and see were its at. if its pointed to the #1 spark plug outlet on the cap then it should be close enough to start, remember though at tdc it can still be 180 off and be right because its a 4 cycle motor and if thats the case bring the motor around once back to tdc and it will be in the proper cycle.

 

thinking about, without anything to hold it down it may have riddin up and jumped a few teeth so u could be any degree off, i would treat it the same as a removed dizzy going into a motor that has been turned over. so if u get it set up right using tdc and it backfires or wont run try pulling the distributor (yes i canspell it just to long word lool) and turning it 180 degrees and reinstall. u may have to find a long screwdriver and turn the oil pump drive so it lines up with the drive pin in the end of the dizzy.

 

thanks guys. hopefully i can get it to work. ive never timed a motor before so we will just have to wait and see what happends.