im gonna shoot someone

[Bigmaxxin]

ok, me an my buddy have done a tranny swap, we got it all back together today, put all the fluids in, but it wont start, the engine turns freely when you turn it with a tourque wrench, and the plugs arent in. the starter makes kinda a click sound, and thats it. my question is do you guys think this is the starter? or have we really messed things up nicely. The other thing i should add is we upgraded the ground to the batt, and the ground from the valve cover to the body, i dont remeber where the orignial ground to the battery goes, but if i recall right its the tranny? we grounded it to the body, will this affect it? sorry about the rambling if this is hard to read, its been a long day. thanx for the help guys.

[BITESIZE]

Did you touch the timing belt or distributor? Basically, did you just do a tranny swap or did you touch the engine at all?

[Bigmaxxin]

unfortunatley we did pull the distributor, but not the timing belt, but the distributor was keyed, could this cause it to not try to even crank?
edit: by keyed i mean it only fit one way.

[NXRacer]

make sure you have a good engine ground from your valve cover to the body somewhere. it has to be a GOOD ground. not having that ground will cause a BUNCH of funny problems.

if its not that, it might be a bad connection to your starter. It doesnt sound like you did anything serious. just make sure all your electrical connections are good.

[A20A1]

ground the battery to the motor not the car
also make sure the ground from the harness is connected to the thermostat or round about that area...

[Bigmaxxin]

what do you mean by the harness?

[BITESIZE]

The engine wiring harness?

[Bigmaxxin]

ok, i changed the grounding point, it now tries to turn, but wont. it will crank and you will hear a few pops from the cylnders, and it backfired once, is this the distributor coming back to haunt us? should i just say screw it now, and send it to a mechanic, because i have no clue how to adjust the timing.

[Bigmaxxin]

the fun hasnt stopped yet, we figured out that we are not as smart as orignally thought, and we had the rotor order wrong. it now starts easily, bt there is a clanking, which we traced to the torque converter plate, which we then found to be warped, which isnt cool, but we will live. anyways thanks for the help, but i do have one more question, the block is very hot, and the radiator coolant is to the temperature where you can stick your finger in and be refreshed. i dont see how water could not be pumped through the system, but anyway the temp gauge also doesnt show anything unusual, it reads normal temps, but then again i dont remeber how hot the block used to get.

[Civvy]

Hmmm. the earth strap from the = battery should bolt to the chasis and the transmision.
Check the Thermostat is opening? doesn't sound like it! or are u just not giving it sufficent time to? is the fan coming on?
Try running it with out the thermostat?

[Bigmaxxin]

i ran it agian for a lil while longer, and the fluid got hot this time, but the block still seems way hot, im just not sure if i plugged the radiator hoses into the right places, does anyone have a pic or diagram?