69 340 problems
So, even with the new eddy carb, it still does not squirt? Have you poured a bit of fuel into the carb and if it starts for a bit, you know its fuel and not spark. What is the timing set at? I am curious to know if it is spark or fuel. We must eliminate the variables.
Redfast,
We are getting fuel now. There was some kind of problem with the original carb where the squirter isn't working right, but that isn't the root cause of the problem. The new Edelbrock carb does have a nice stream of fuel coming out of the squirters now.
I have no idea where the timing is set because I have been moving the dist around while troubleshooting, but I do know it is close enough to run.
Not to ad to the confusion but you didn't sound like the distributor might be real whoopy. Get a rebuilt one if you have any doubts, they are cheap. I have had a distributor shaft bend somehow and when I turned it over you could see it wobble bad, wouldn't even start, rebuilt one installed and purred like a kitten. Just something easy to check right quick. Good luck.
I am leaning towards a bad distributor myself, but I have been wrong in the past.
OK. I've just read the whole thread and I can see some people have responded without doing that. Suggestions have been made which weren't necessary because of the fact the car HAD BEEN RUNNING FINE at one point, then quit.
George, you now have fuel and are getting a shot from the accelerator pump? Some fire, but kind of weak? Fires, but hardly runs then dies?
I know you have checked the point gap, but how did the rotor and the inside of the cap look? Any evidence of arch over? Cracked cap? Have you tried a different coil wire, as in from coil to center tower of the cap? Also have a look into the wells for the coil wire to see if that tells you anything.
Thats exactly right 68Sedan.
I looked in the cap for carbon track and didn't see anything wrong in there. The rotor also looked nice. Both pieces are new and have only about 30 minutes run time on them.
I have not tried a different coil wire as I don't have a spare to use.
I'll look in the towers of the coil/cap and see what they look like.
When the car does try to start, it SOUNDS like the timing is VERY retarded. One time I tried to advance the timing in an effort to get it to start, and I advanced it to the point that the starter was having a difficult time turning the engine over, and still it made no difference.
I am leaning towards an electrical problem, but I don't know if it is within the car's wiring or the distributor. The wiring harnesses are all new, clean and tight, but the distributor is an old used unit I got from a crook locally. He actually sold it to me for a 383 that I bought from him. Obviously he ripped me off as it is a SB distributor, but like I said, the car ran well before all this started.
It was my goal to drop the kids off at school on their first day back with this car. Today is the first day of school for them, and I aint gonna make the goal! LOL I think I am more upset than they are.
Thanks for the help. I am going to take a printout of the latest responses out to the garage after they leave for school, and try everything that was suggested except for the replacement of the distributor because I don't have one. I will have to order it from the auto parts store, but I doubt they'll be able to get me one today.
Report back later for an update, and THANK YOU ALL for the help.
George