84 302 Broken Timing Chain

[broncobrowny84]

I was given an 84 Bronco with 302 motor. It had a few minor issues, but after driving it without any trouble for about two months, something broke loose in the drive-train while accelerating, and the engine died...wouldn't restart. I towed it home and let it sit for 1 year. Last month, I removed a rocker cover and saw the valves were not moving when the crankshaft was turned by hand. I removed the belts, crank pulley, water pump, and the timing cover. Sure, the timing chain had broken! I replaced the timing chain and gears, aligned the gears properly, and reinstalled all the other goodies.

Unfortunately, the engine won't start now, even though I've tried moving the distributor a little. I thought perhaps the chain had jumped a tooth before I got it, and maybe someone realigned the distributor to make up for it. Anyway....I've made sure the battery has a good charge, and new cables are in place...they get pretty warm when cranking, so it seems there may be more of a load than there should be somewhere in the motor?? I have a mechanical fuel pump, and it may not be getting enough fuel, but backfired a couple of times when I added a small amount of gas to the carb.

Any ideas?

 

[Yardape]

Bring the engine to tdc, locate the number one spark plug wire on the cap. pop the top of the distributer and see where the rotor is pointed. It must be pointed to number plug wire. if not make it so. Then try it. There is a chance you could be 180 degrees off by using this method, if this happens it will backfire badly through the carb. then you just pull the dizz then turn rotor 180 degrees and drop it back in. Thats where I would start...