Beach Mann

by Jerry L
(Morro Bay, Ca, USA)

1980 L82 corvette won’t start. The fuel pump, new plugs, new control module, new fuel filter and vacuum pump work fine. Before all of this I took it out for a drive after changing an exhaust manifold gasket and it ran great. Accelerated well and went about 1.5 miles on the highway then turned around and accelerated rapidly and the engine shut down and coasted to a stop off the highway and tried to restart. It would crank fine but no sign of any ignition or even a hint of combustion. Towed it home and started checking for bad connections or cracked distributor or rotor but nothing. The coil seemed to be working when checked with a meter and even hooked up an old plug to a spark plug wire and saw a yellow spark. The engine still just cranks but nothing else except for gas fumes from it starting to flood out. I looked into the valve cover and could see the valves operating normally. I don't know where to look now; I read that the timing sprocket gear has fiber glass gears. Could it be worn and jumped a gear and got out of timing? I'm sure they're the original gears. I would hate to tear into that and fine out it was something much simpler that had gone wrong. I'm grasping at straws now, I would take it to a mechanic but I feel that I should be able to fix this if I could narrow down where to look. Any suggestion are greatly appreciated, thank you.

Chris Trautman @ Corvette Assembly Plant 2019

About Us: Corvette Web Central | Owner Bio: Chris Trautman

Established in 2008 by Chris Trautman, Corvette Web Central quickly grew into one of the top leading Corvette enthusiast websites globally. 

"This website is a passion of mine, just as much as being a Corvette owner," says Chris.  He was frustrated trying to find information on the internet about Corvettes which was was not biased or influenced somehow. 

He has owned three Corvettes over the last twenty years and does not plan to stop owning one anytime soon.

Note: Some links on this page are part of our affiliate program and provide a small portion of proceeds to fund the administrative costs and to fund more product reviews.  We are not paid to perform the reviews or are we given any products for free.