Bought a new car this morning

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ChazRam

ChazRam

1964 Valiant V200
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
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Location
Carol Stream Illinois
Picked up a beautiful 1964 Valiant. Slant six, push button auto, 2 door. Under the hood , the 225 has a Clifford intake, 4 barrel carb, Clifford split headers with true dual exhaust. Long story short I drove it about 250 miles before I had problems. After a lunch stop it would not start. Getting fuel, getting spark, car just cranks. I fiddled with it a bit and kept trying
It started again so I drove it another 100 miles. Until I stopped for fuel. It started up immediately but on leaving the gas station it stalled on the street and would not start, just crank. I called a hook to take it the rest of the way home. Right before the guy hooked the car the car started again for a moment, then stalled again. Anybody have any idea what is going on here. This car is costing me 500 bucks to be towed to my house. Thanks in advance for any help.
Chas
 
To begin, you need to verify if its getting spark at the plugs when its cranking but not starting.
Does it have electronic ignition or points?
Then, see if its getting fuel when its not starting?
Does it have an electric or mechanical fuel pump?
These facts will begin to tell the story.
 
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Joey4speed said:
To begin, you need to verify if its getting spark at the plugs when its cranking but not starting.
Does it have electronic ignition or points?
Then, see if its getting fuel when its not starting?
Does it have an electric or mechanical fuel pump?
These facts will begin to tell the story.
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I will be digging into it this coming week. Getting spark at the plugs. It is electronic but aftermarket, thinking I should get a pretty good zap but it kinda felt weak, getting fuel, mechanical fuel pump. Going to rest up a day and start the track down process. First thing I will be doing is shooting a bit of starting fluid into the carb if it is still only cranking. Then check wires and the electronic ignition box and see if I'm getting spark at the plugs.
 
Scody21 said:
No photos, means it didn’t happen… :poke:
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Can't post them yet. Still on the road coming home with the car. Its real, its very nice
Scody21 said:
No photos, means it didn’t happen… :poke:
Click to expand...

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Sounds like vapor lock to me. I had to put an electric fuel pump on my 68 D100 with a slant, 4-bbl, and headers so it would not vapor lock, that was in 1993...
 
wonder if it had not been filled with gas until you started home with it. I remember an old lady that owned a store down the road from me had a 61 Chevy that she only drove into town every couple of weeks. She would only put enough gas in it to make the trip because she was afraid someone would steal it. She sold the car to a friend of mine and she filled the tank with gas for him. He didn't get but about 3 miles before all the rust in top part of tank
 
Looks like my 1964 Valiant slant, exc. mine is a convertible. When I drove it home 70 miles after purchase, I had a few problems. I stayed off the interstate and took parallel farm roads, with a son following in our minivan. 10 miles out, the engine just died. The ignition wiring was erratic. Instead of the proper connector at the key switch, they had used a bunch of individual spade connectors which were falling off. The switch was new, likely because they burned up the first by wiring a radiator fan straight off the switch (gomers). I ran a jumper straight from BATT+ to coil+. Ran great for 5 miles then started missing bad above 45 mph. Popped the hood and the coil was so hot it was melting its paint. A reason for that ballast resistor, so I used more jumpers to wire thru it, then no more problems. It clunked at stop signs because the suspension bushings were shot.

Initially, I had tried to flat-tow it home, but it wouldn't follow and the front tires would **** sideways. I should have tried the trick of using bungee cords to keep the steering centered, but getting late so I decided to return the next day and drive it home. I suspect the problem was the caster isn't enough with today's radial tires, which I improved by installing Moog offset bushings (read posts). You can also buy aftermarket adjustable tubular upper control arms. My 1965 Dart did the same when I tried to flat-tow it "as found" to the DMV.

If not an erratic electrical problem, perhaps the rubber hose at the fuel pump inlet is soft and collapsing at higher flow. That plagued me on a cross-country trip in 1988 in our 1969 Dart slant. I suspect as we drove west, we ran into 10% ethanol gas which was fairly new then. The car would start missing on hills and finally above 55 mph on a warm day on I-40 in NM so I stopped at an auto parts, found the problem and swapped the hose in the parking lot in 5 min as wifey ordered at a restaurant with the tykes. Think that would make me her hero, but instead got, "just buy a new car". She never owned a car before we married so has no concept of "issues". Can't think of any 1988 model I would like to have today, and wish I still had that Dart (much more valuable) but was stolen in 1994.
 
HemiSSDart said:
Sounds like vapor lock to me. I had to put an electric fuel pump on my 68 D100 with a slant, 4-bbl, and headers so it would not vapor lock, that was in 1993...
Click to expand...
Never experienced vapor lock EVER is any slant I had. Not sure of the symptoms. Have some figuring and testing to do to see exactly what is going on. Im thinking the coil might be problematic.
 
Demonic said:
Weak coil?
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Thinking maybe. It has a Crane Fireball LX91 on it along with some sort of electronic ignition box mounted close to it on the right inner fender. When I tested to see if there was spark using a screwdriver stuck in the end of the spark plug wire it zapped me but it did not feel like too much of a zap, I expected to just about break dance LOL. Wondering if this coil is worn out or too weak?
 
If this slant has the OEM fuel line and gasahol that gas an boil and it can get vapor lock or not start.
Re route the line away from heat can cure this. You shut if off hot and then tried to start before it all cooled off right??
LIke said check for good spark, it has compression, so it gas. Right.
 
ChazRam said:
Dont think its a Pertronix system. There is a finned rectangular gold box tied into the coil mounted on the inner fender.
Click to expand...
Might be an older cdi ignition system, still uses points as a trigger. I had one 30 years ago.
 
Yeah, engine is tight. Ran 70 plus, performed very nicely. Starts well, runs well, until it does not start lol. The line is moved away from the engine in front of the carb. Stock fuel line, stock mechanical fuel pump. On these no starts it was after a highway run and car cooled off, last time it stalled it did not sit too long but it was like 27 degrees. Running on the highway no hint anything was wrong. Thought this Fireball Coil would have a strong spark, seemed like a stock coil kind of spark when I got zapped. Just clueless right now?
 
Tooljunkie said:
Might be an older cdi ignition system, still uses points as a trigger. I had one 30 years ago.
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I have to open up the distributor and see what is under the cap but its electronic ignition and its not that old. Car went through a complete resto back around 2015, 2017.
 
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