More starting issues please help!!!

[cimplexsound]

I went out to the storage to start up my rv today. To utter disbelief it would not start. New plugs, wires, coil wire, and distribution cap. I pulled the dog house off sprayed starting fluid directly into the carberator put gas in the tank and still it would not start. Ended up jumping the battery with my car 3 times still no success. I put fuel stabalizer in the tank so the gas won't go bad. This thing has only 91k miles, runs very well and started everytime. So I am very troubled as to what could possibly be wrong.

[rskrbina]

Is the engine getting gas? Is it getting spark? If you can determine either of those two things and report back, I'm sure we can get you going.

[terry735001]

hope its not pets VS wring

but giving you tryed starting fluid i would say 12v power not getting to some where it needs to be

[Skip426]

Which engine do you have ?? 360 / 400? 440?
Is the coil wire giving any spark during cranking ?
Is your ignition system equipped with a dual ballast resistor ?
Usually on the drivers side side of the engine compartment , in the area of the brake booster, white 1 1/2" x 3" four wires . Quite common for these to fail and shut down coil operation.

[Doggy Daddy]

When was the last time the engine was started and ran???

[cimplexsound]

Originally Posted by Doggy Daddy

When was the last time the engine was started and ran???

About 3 days ago and it ran just fine.

[cimplexsound]

Originally Posted by Skip426

Which engine do you have ?? 360 / 400? 440?
Is the coil wire giving any spark during cranking ?
Is your ignition system equipped with a dual ballast resistor ?
Usually on the drivers side side of the engine compartment , in the area of the brake booster, white 1 1/2" x 3" four wires . Quite common for these to fail and shut down coil operation.

It's the 440 7.2 liter v8, 4 barrel carb.

[cimplexsound]

Originally Posted by rskrbina

Is the engine getting gas? Is it getting spark? If you can determine either of those two things and report back, I'm sure we can get you going.

Yes it's getting plenty of gas.

[Skip426]

Hold the distributor end of the coil wire, about a 1/4" away from the alternator bracket , with a gloved hand, while someone cranks the engine over, you should see , good blue spark jump the gap.
If spark there , pull a plug wire, off a plug & install an old spark plug and hold the plug on a exhaust manifold. Crank the engine while looking for spark.
If you have spark from the coil and none at the plug. You could have a bad rotor or cap, ( new is not necessarily good); I've seen new rotors track spark down the distributor shaft.
If you have no spark from the coil, you need to find the ballast resistor and check for ignition power, in with ignition on at one terminal and out the other end terminal on the same side, at reduced voltage. The other side of the ballast resistor, if it has 4 wires, has to be tested while cranking, ignition power in, reduced voltage out.

[cimplexsound]

Called my uncle Rick who is a real pro with the older carberated engines. He also thinks it's the ballest resistor. Called autozone and it's about $5 bucks at the parts store and easy to replace. So I'll start there and report back my results.

[Skip426]

On my 79 P/U, I had a spare mounted beside the factory location , just had to swap the wires over. If it proves to be the problem, get a second one.

[cimplexsound]

Originally Posted by Skip426

On my 79 P/U, I had a spare mounted beside the factory location , just had to swap the wires over. If it proves to be the problem, get a second one.

Hey thanks skip. I'll keep my fingers crossed that this will actually fix it this time. My uncle Rick also thinks the bad resistor is at fault for the hard start issues too.

[cimplexsound]

Originally Posted by Skip426

On my 79 P/U, I had a spare mounted beside the factory location , just had to swap the wires over. If it proves to be the problem, get a second one.

If this is what you and my uncle Rick are talking about, I found several of these white transistors in the glove box when I bought the rv. Because I am more experienced with modern rigs I had no idea what these where but I left them in the glove box because I figured I might need than someday. Rick also suggested the ignition control module might have gone out. So I am guess the two would be mounted close to each other??? Looks like they might have put mine on the passenger side.

[cimplexsound]

I guess the ignition control module was like a computer that controlled the spark. Apparently it was the first rv with a computer of any kind, Rick said. So I will try replacing the resistor first, and if that doesn't work I also found a couple of these nice looking control modules in the rv.