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VonCramp

VonCramp

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Been trouble shooting my car for two weeks now. After being told by numerous people I have a vacuum leak because my car won't run unless the throttle is constantly mashed, I replaced the intake gaskets and base gasket for carb. Still wouldn't idle. While working on the car I accidentally unplugged the blue and brown wire plug going to the ballast resistor. I noticed the car didn't stop running as long as I worked the throttle as I've been doing. So, thoughts on this? I am running an orange Mopar ignition box, a Mallory coil and Mopar Performance distributor.
 
That connection is only used when cranking, so it will not make a difference when running.

About your idle problem, have you checked float level, idle mixture and idle speed setting, base timing, choke pull-off and vacuum advance for a vacuum leak?
 
KitCarlson said:
That connection is only used when cranking, so it will not make a difference when running.

About your idle problem, have you checked float level, idle mixture and idle speed setting, base timing, choke pull-off and vacuum advance for a vacuum leak?
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I have tried three different carbs. Still runs the same after trying them. The timing I will check. Maybe the timing jumped somehow? I messed with the idle mixture and idle speed settings on all the carbs. It can be made to idle by retarding the timing and adjusting the mixtures way out, but it runs horribly after that. The demon carb I am currently using has sight glass bowls. So, I can see the float level is fine. I am completely stumped at this point. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
 
A long shot, but did you change intake manifolds?
Back in the very early '70s I put a new intake manifold on my 340 Swinger and had a vacuum leak I couldn't find. The new intake had two sets of bolt holes for different brands of carbs. One of the bolt holes I wasn't using with my Holley was not completely covered by the carb gasket and when the bolt hole was factory drilled/threaded it partially broke through into an intake runner.
Can't hurt to check everything.
Good luck finding the problem.
 
ocdart said:
A long shot, but did you change intake manifolds?
Back in the very early '70s I put a new intake manifold on my 340 Swinger and had a vacuum leak I couldn't find. The new intake had two sets of bolt holes for different brands of carbs. One of the bolt holes I wasn't using with my Holley was not completely covered by the carb gasket and when the bolt hole was factory drilled/threaded it partially broke through into an intake runner.
Can't hurt to check everything.
Good luck finding the problem.
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Wow! I never even considered that! I will pull my carb and see what's going on. I have been running the same intake for years. It is a basic Edelbrock performer.
 
From what you described it sounds like a vacuum leak. So you need to explain what you have done as far as troubleshooting. You say your sure that the carb is good, no vacuum leak and nice clean fuel coming from fuel tank. You need to pull plugs a look at them as far as color or fouled. If plugs look good run a compression test or leak down test. You need to make sure that you didn't cross plug wires and look at cap and rotor and air gap of pick up. What is timing set at and are you checking it with vacuum advanced disconnected? Have you made sure timing mark on damper is correct. Have you looked to see if all valves are open and closing and looked the cam over when you had intake off? This is basic trouble shooting that needs to be done. You need to give details just what you have checked so we can give you solid advice. I hate to tell you to start pulling your engine apart for no reason. Bill
 
I woke up this morning, and question what I said about pulling the brown blue connector at ballast. I am not sure how the ignition is fed. You may have a wiring error. I also think you have multiple problems.

I think at this point you need someone there, with timing light, mityvac, voltmeter to help you out. There are ways to test with certainty, removing all the guessing, and part changing.
 
So did you spray any carb cleaner around the intake to head mating surfaces to see if it revs up? That would indicate a vacuum leak around that area, no?? Just thinking out loud here!! Geof
 
67cudafb said:
You need to give details just what you have checked so we can give you solid advice. I hate to tell you to start pulling your engine apart for no reason. Bill
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Ditto....Did you ever take a vacuum guage reading from the engine? (It's been asked multiple times with no answer.) That is troubleshooting 101 when a vaccum leak is suspected.

We need more info if we are to do anything more than just make educated guesses and have you change everything. The info on the sight glass on the present carb is good info; it at least rules out a severe restriction between the pump and carb.

Do you have any info on how far are you retarding the timing to make it idle?

Did you ever get the fuel pressure down from the 8 psi that you had before?
 
Im a little foggy here. I and others have suggested to remove your timing cover it inspected Shane yet you have replaced the intake manifold and manifold gasketsI would think it'd be easier to remove the timing cover and just verify that your dots are aligned
 
funwithfuel said:
Im a little foggy here. I and others have suggested to remove your timing cover it inspected Shane yet you have replaced the intake manifold and manifold gasketsI would think it'd be easier to remove the timing cover and just verify that your dots are aligned
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I did as suggested. The timing is spot on. What I have discovered is that I have a very thin intake wall at the base. We doubled up on the gaskets and seems to help. Now while doing that and getting the car to run like it should we noticed my ballast resistor spring was glowing red hot. Not really sure if it's been doing that all along or just recently. It is a Mallory style resistor that has the two threaded connectors for wires coming off of my ignition box. I just happened to notice because it was at night and I could see the red glow coming off the firewall. What should my resistance be and what would be making it get so hot?
 
I was just looking back over your original post and found that you said you remove the blue wire from the ballast but the engine continue to run that would indicate that you have 12 volts running to your coil and not resistor voltage running to your coil in the wrong position that is wrong you should only have 12 volts when you are in crank . when you're running the voltage to your coil should be between 9.5 and 10 volts.
 
I had the same problem and changed a bunch of parts that weren't broke. I finally thought about the only thing i didn't change was the coil. I changed it and its been running grate ever sins. It really doesn't make any sense to me but it worked
 
I originally was going to say to check the ohm rating on the ballast resistor. I got the wrong one from a parts house once and the car ran like crap.

Then it occurred to me that,,,,,,,

I don't think it should keep running if you pull a wire from the ballast resistor. I know it shouldn't.
 
Revhendo said:
I originally was going to say to check the ohm rating on the ballast resistor. I got the wrong one from a parts house once and the car ran like crap.

Then it occurred to me that,,,,,,,

I don't think it should keep running if you pull a wire from the ballast resistor. I know it shouldn't.
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The car had been running really badly. I started hunting for a vacuum leak because it wouldn't run unless I kept working throttle. Now I am thinking it was because I was increasing voltage output by constantly the revving motor. It's one of those gremlins that starts compounding any problem originally thought to have existed. I am sure after my numerous posts that everyone thinks this car must be a crap pile, when in reality it is actually very clean. There are no splices in my wiring and none of that plastic crimp terminal junk.
 
VonCramp said:
I did as suggested. The timing is spot on. What I have discovered is that I have a very thin intake wall at the base. We doubled up on the gaskets and seems to help. Now while doing that and getting the car to run like it should we noticed my ballast resistor spring was glowing red hot. Not really sure if it's been doing that all along or just recently. It is a Mallory style resistor that has the two threaded connectors for wires coming off of my ignition box. I just happened to notice because it was at night and I could see the red glow coming off the firewall. What should my resistance be and what would be making it get so hot?
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Glad you found some sort of issue that was fixable and makes some sense with the symptoms. And, I don't think folks think anything bad about your car.....it's machinery and machinery breaks!

Reading this says to me that the resistor was glowing red while the car was not running. Am I reading that right? The ballast and coil are not meant to be be on all the time; they are switched on and off constantly for each saprk when the car is running. They CAN be on constantly when the ignition siwtch is in the ON position but the car is not running. What kind of ignition system is this?
 
nm9stheham said:
Glad you found some sort of issue that was fixable and makes some sense with the symptoms. And, I don't think folks think anything bad about your car.....it's machinery and machinery breaks!

Reading this says to me that the resistor was glowing red while the car was not running. Am I reading that right? The ballast and coil are not meant to be be on all the time; they are switched on and off constantly for each saprk when the car is running. They CAN be on constantly when the ignition siwtch is in the ON position but the car is not running. What kind of ignition system is this?
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I am running all new ignition stuff. The box is a Mopar orange box. The distributor is a Mopar performance unit with corrected advance curve. The coil is a Mallory (slightly used.) The ballast resistor is a Mallory unit. Last night it just started intermittently losing fire. If we let it sit for a few minutes it would fire back up. Maybe my resistor and coil are hooked up wrong. Not really sure. Thanks for taking the time to help!
 
Coils are cheap. I'm sorry I didn't catch that tidbit on the first time around. You should have your ign hot (blue wire) attached to one side the ballast, on the other side should be between 9.5 & 10 volts going towards your coil. At the coil should be a black wire I believe with 12 volts but only in crank. If you have 12 @the coil all the time it will fail in short order. Check your voltages . If you have access to a "test" spark controller, you may wanna give that a try. If it's not vacuum, not fuel and crank to cam timing is dead nuts the dwell could be screwed up. I,ve had manifolds glowing white due to faulty dwell . Good luck
 
funwithfuel said:
Coils are cheap. I'm sorry I didn't catch that tidbit on the first time around. You should have your ign hot (blue wire) attached to one side the ballast, on the other side should be between 9.5 & 10 volts going towards your coil. At the coil should be a black wire I believe with 12 volts but only in crank. If you have 12 @the coil all the time it will fail in short order. Check your voltages . If you have access to a "test" spark controller, you may wanna give that a try. If it's not vacuum, not fuel and crank to cam timing is dead nuts the dwell could be screwed up. I,ve had manifolds glowing white due to faulty dwell . Good luck
Click to expand...
Now that was a comprehensive and helpful reply! Thanks! I just bought a good voltmeter. I will do this check when I get home. I do remember that my blue wire also has a brown wire running into the same terminal that plugs into the resistor. Knowing the voltage in and out of resistor helps a lot!
 
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