318 Idle Questions

****This is identical to the conclusion of my other post - but I wanted to post it here as well in case some poor sap like me comes along looking for how the story ends*****

Thank you all for your help. I fixed it this morning.

I want to post this as a conclusion in case anyone else finds this thread in the future they will know how it wrapped up.

So after verifying TDC and making sure wire 1 corresponded closely with the direction the rotor was pointed, there was still no change in my ability to tune the car.

Adjusting the timing further advanced didn't seem to do anything meaningful either.

The more I tried to tune things, the worse the signal to my timing light would get and I noticed a lot of skipping in the flashes. I was trying to use the light as a diagnostic to see that each of the plugs was receiving signal, but the light was coming through so sporadically I couldn't tell where the problem was.

So I decided to do all new (and nicer) plugs and wires - to improve the signal before replacing the points with electric ones.

After doing this, the car ran slightly better - but idle was still rough and none of the major issues were resolved. The worn old plugs and crappy old wires were no longer a problem though.

I replaced the points with electric Pertronix ones, but then the car wouldn't start at all. I thought maybe the ballast resistor might be the problem, so I tried bypassing that with a hot-wire from the battery with still no response. I ordered the hotter coil also by Pertronix to match the new points. To my surprise the car started.

There was a mean knocking. I took a look at the signal coming from the timing light - it was steady as a drumbeat with no misses. I took a look at the timing mark even though the vac advance was still attached and the car was still not to temperature. It looked a bit too far advanced, even with those two elements still being in place, so I retarded it just a bit until it seemed to be in a reasonable range.

I let the car come to temperature. The idle did not drop to 250 when the choke let out. It stayed at about 1200. I dialed it down to 800. It was a significant distance to get it down to 800 actually. The idle setting before was definitely a crazy overcompensation for a bigger issue. After getting down to 800 rpm, I disconnected the vac advance and plugged the port. This time there was no change in engine performance - there was no longer any vacuum - the rpms did not drop to 250. I checked the timing - it was too far advanced after all the tinkering from the past week. I dialed it in to 12*B (I might tale it to 15-20 soon, it seemed to like it better a bit earlier, but I didn't want to push it at this point).

Then I dialed the rpms down to 700 and started to mess with the mixture. I got a steady reading from the tach while playing with my idle screws. I maximized the performance and dialed the idle back again.

I turned her off, turned her on. And had to literally pause and ask my girlfriend, "Is it on?" It wasn't shaking, wasn't making a bunch of noise. she runs like a charm.

Next up I'd like need to try to bypass the ballast resistor for some extra voltage - I tried building a bypass wire with 2 1/4" flat male leads (I don't remember what they were called) - crimped with a 10 gauge wire. I don't think the 1/4' were the right size. So I'm still running with the ballast.

Thanks again for all the help. I learned a ton. If any of you ever has a question about Avid or Final Cut (something I know a lot about), just send me a message!