To30 advice

My neighbor gave me a to30 he found in the weeds on some land he bought and I drug it home. Trying to start it and I believe I m almost there but nothing yet.

Drug it in the garage and filled the cylinders with wd40 to free up the crank for me and I didn t rush things it sat like this a few months and I got it to turn well. Sourced a starter and installed it. Put in a new starter button key switch voltage regulator and complete wiring harness new cables new plug wires new plugs points cap rotor and condenser. New 6v battery as well. I have repeatedly set the timing to the best of my ability. The oil pan is off and the flywheel Guard is off so I ve put an eye on the internals. I ve had the tank and the rocker cover off as well as the manifold and all of the valves and pushrods are free functioning in apparent time as I crank the engine. I cannot get it to start. I can get smoke from the exhaust on ether and it spins enthusiastically but not starting. I pull number 1 plug and it fires a grounded plug. I ve got spark and my plugs go counter clockwise 1 3 4 2. Looking at the crank with the number one piston compressing I can use a wrench on the nose and turn the crank till the 6* mark. The rotor will point at the 1 plug and I will loosen the collar and rotate the dist until it snaps then tighten it back down. This is what I m calling in time. Done this half a dozen times. Still no starts. I know 6v turns slower but is this just too slow? Why can t I get it to fire up? Carb is a newly remanufactured tsx361. Clean carb. Only thing I can think is I m not spinning fast enough. Its more enthusiastic than ambitious? Any advice???

I suggest you check compression with a tester/gauge and see where that's at - a few squirts of oil in each cylinder is suggested. If you don't see a minimum of 90 pounds pressure in each cylinder you need to diagnose why.

I'd double check that the distributer is not 180 degrees off -

"oil pan is off" - is it still off? It needs to be on w/oil so as to get oil circulating thru the system.

David

put pan back on-with oil.couple squirts of oil in each cylinder-u need an oil seal to suck fuel.

If you break a post into paragraphs it's easier to read.


Pomester brings up a significant point - The piston is at TDC twice. Once between the compression and power strokes, when the plug fires. The other time is between the exhaust and intake strokes. If the plug is firing then it won't do anything.

Compression will probably be low with an engine that's been sitting as the valves and rings get stuck. I'd pull plugs and valve cover and observe valves while turning over. Another option is to pull it off.

When setting the ignition timing, did you check that #1 was coming up on compression stroke?

Pull the #1 plug, hold your finger over the plug hole, turn the engine until you feel compression, bring #1 to the top. That will be the firing position.

Did you add some oil to the cylinders? The WD probably washed down the cylinder walls. Pull the plugs, add a teaspoon of engine oil to each cylinder, let it sit a while, spin it out. That should raise the compression significantly.

You can temporary a 12v battery in to get it started. Just be careful not to crank too long, be sure the engine and starter are completely stopped before hitting the start switch, and don't leave the ignition on between attempted starts.

A good test, remove and ground the coil wire, remove the air cleaner hose from the carb. Hold your hand tightly over the air inlet of the carb, crank the starter a few seconds.

You should get a strong vacuum against your hand. No vacuum, or intermittent vacuum/blow back, indicates valve problems.

Your hand should be wet with gas. No gas means no fuel is getting to/through the carb.

Try a bit of STP in the plug holes, WD40 is not very thick. The STP will give a bit of compression until it burns off. Fuel,
fire, and air. You said you have fire, is the gas turned on? Is it getting to the carb. Try a bit of gas down the plug holes.

Thank you all so very much for the contributions

I have observed my valves and rockers all appear to be taking turns nicely while cranking. I brought home the comp gauge and an oil can I will update everyone tomorrow evening. All very very good ideas.

I will refill the case with oil and try 180 on the distributor as well as oil the rings and check my compression.. gents give me just a day or two as I m working overnights this week

Thanks again!! Much appreciated!!!

Update, oil in the cylinders noticeably bumped the compression, hot battery but we re turning over really slowly. I need to check up the cables again but I m beginning to wonder about this starter.

You may want to pull the starter and check the brushes. If its been sitting a while then may want to be replaced as you do not know how much wear is
already on them. I did not see them here on the parts site, but, I have bought them with new springs off eBay and other suppliers. If you have a good
parts store they may have rebuilding services available too. Make sure to tell them rebuild and not replace with a new one.

I m waiting on an adapter for my compression gauge to paint a clearer picture of the situation but I am currently hunting a slow cranking issue also.
I have at least 0 or 00 cables and I keep a 6v trickle charger on this battery.
I have polished every connection and I think this starter may be contributing to my issue but keep in mind I have zero experience with 6v.
How difficult are these starters to rebuild?

Thanks again folks!!!!

Not hard. Keep us posted

update

I pulled the fuel tank off and rocker cover and took the plugs out.
I wanted to see once again these valves in action.

What I first notice is that this starter is faster with no compression but its still pretty weak and after a minute or so of cranking shouldnt i have oil coming up on the rockers?

I wonder if the old girl didnt loose oil pressure and thats why it was parked.
The pan is back on and its got 5qts of fresh oil and a filter..

It doesnt have an oil pressure gauge I suppose I might as well get one and an oil pump kit I guess.

Im still looking for an adapter for my compression gauge so i can get some readings there.

If this starter is slow and it smokes a bit should i just get bushings springs and brushes or a newly remanufactured unit.

Are there any newer styles that are better? I want to say I saw a ford style starter advertised for a mf35 that was said to fit the TO series as well but im not sure.

thanks folks