I put my LT1 away for almost 6 months now since my opti went out. If any of you guys remember my water pump drive seal leaked oil onto it and soaked the optical sensor so it was not reading right and was mis-firing. I took it apart, cleaned it thoroughly with contact cleaner and re-assembled it.

However, I could not get it to start again. A few primaries got warm but then it was just dead cranking. I have spark out of each wire, I am using Taylors and they are brand new. Could it be I reseated the shaft incorrectly? I know its keyed but its always possible.

I had this idea of taking the cap off, rotating the rotor by hand to get the key into the camshaft in correctly and then fasten the cap back on again.

The wires are not crossed, I probably checked that 5 times before I stowed the car away.

Any advice would be helpful. I was originally going carb but I have other priorities so can't blow away almost 2000$ on the conversion.

 

Yes, splined or not it's possible that the opti is installed incorrectly.

If it's not splined your idea will work great. If it is splined just visually verify where the blind spline is and set the opti to that position.

 

I verified it numerous times visually, still no start. There is fuel in the tank, over 5 gallons.

I uploaded a datalog on here a long time ago which showed the misfire I was having, it was like running on half the cylinders.

 

Have you done the opti test from Rob's website?

 

I am getting spark at the coil, and I am getting spark out of the boots. But the engine still won't fire up which leads me to think the shaft might not be in the right place.

The rest on his site is if I am not getting any spark.

 

Having replaced several optis, I will tell you that they are pretty fickle. Most people (like myself) learn that rather than trying to fix an old one, it's better to just get a replacement, making sure it's a TRUE AC/Delco part.

 

It would be plain dumb to go and buy a new opti at 250$ if the current one was just not seated on right.

My opti is new, not even 1000 miles on it and it is a true AC/Delco part. I purchased it from the GM dealer.

 

True that. Just making sure you weren't a fake Opti victim, like me.

 

I removed the opti earlier today, and it was indexed correctly (I compared position of the key on the shaft and the optispark after removal).

I am opening it up to further inspect and clean it, but its going to be difficult removing the sealant I applied to the casing (extreme duty stuff).