69 340 problems

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The bushing is located under the dist. Remove the dist, then pull out the gear that meshes with the cam. That's the drive and it should not have any slop when you lift it out. Look close on how it engauges the cam because it has to go back the same way. You'll see the bushing under that gear. There a ***** to get at.
 
Anyone consider the fuel line from the tank to the pump ??? I ha 70 fury years ago that did the same thing as this gentalmans car and we replaced most of what you all mentioned...My dad told start at the tank and work our way forward and sure enough down under the rockers between the front and rear doors was the problem the metal fuel line was partly pinched and restricted the fuel flow...we replaced the bad part with a chunk of rubber fuel line and problem solved it ran awesome after that.....
 
George R said:
I stuck a screwdriver in the boot of the #2 plug wire while my wife cranked the engine. It has a weak spark, and it doesn't SEEM to fire on every revolution.
Think maybe the distributer is bad? I got it in a bad deal last summer so I have no idea what kind of shape it's in. I took it apart before I put it in the car, cleaned it all up inside, regreased it and replaced the advance springs. I spun the dist over by hand while it was apart and it felt smooth.
Like I said the car ran great before this mess happened.

George
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Any of that new grease get on the points?
 
Longgone said:
A weak spark might be a bad condenser or coil.
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I swapped out the coil for one I used to keep in my Vette just in case of breakdown. I suppose it could be a bad condenser, but it is new as are the points. I'll see if I still have the old ones around to put back in.
Longgone said:
I know you want to keep the car as factory appointed as possible George but if you want to opt for one modification that will really help the overall performance then invest in the MP electronic ignition. I did it on my 68 and hid the box under the dash.
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In all honesty, I'm afraid that I'll flip for another $200 for that kit and it still won't run. I would have a hard time installing it as well; electronic equipment isn't my strong suit....as you all can tell!

bobscuda67 said:
The bushing is located under the dist. Remove the dist, then pull out the gear that meshes with the cam. That's the drive and it should not have any slop when you lift it out. Look close on how it engauges the cam because it has to go back the same way. You'll see the bushing under that gear. There a ***** to get at.
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It sounds like a difficult job to do. How often do these things wear out? What is the bushing made of??

Longgone said:
Check the plug on the back of your ignition switch for a good connection as well as the bulkhead connector.
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I'll check the connections, but I just reassembled all these connections when I reassembled the car a few months ago, and I used the dielectric grease on all the electrical plugs.
SpeedThrills said:
Any of that new grease get on the points?
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No. I just regapped the points a few hours ago, and they're clean as a whip. I also cleaned the mounting plate with lacquer thinner for a good clean ground.

Something has to give, because I'm going back to Vettes if this car doesn't start to cooperate. This is rediculas after 3 weeks! Hell, I could have rebuilt the entire engine by now.

I'm sorry if I sound bitter, but it grates on your nerves after a while.

I appreciate everyones willingness to help!
Thanks a lot,

George
 
George,
Don't worry about the dist. drive gear bushing at all! NOT your problem.

You need to have a good spark. Again, pull the coil wire gently out of the dist. cap for starters. Have someone crank the engine while you hold it close to a ground. The spark should jump at least 1/8" to 1/4"! Yes. wear gloves or hold the wire with insulated pliars.

Tell us about the gasoline. Is it brand new? Are you sure it's good? Water in it or mixed with diesel or who knows?

The one wire from the dist. to the coil, is it hooked on the (-) or negative side of the coil?

Another important check would, to BE SURE while cranking, that you are getting BATTERY VOLTAGE to the (+) side of the coil! You will have to measure battery voltage while cranking @ the battery then jump over to the coil. It should be very close to the same reading. Like 11.5v. at battery and 11.0v. at the coil. An easy check for this is to have a jumper wire, attach one end to the (+) battery and the other side to the coil (+) and try to start it. If it starts take the jumper wire off.
 
nothingbutdarts said:
An easy check for this is to have a jumper wire, attach one end to the (+) battery and the other side to the coil (+) and try to start it. If it starts take the jumper wire off.
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Ok for a test but don't run it like that because it will burn up your coil.
 
Nothingbutdarts, that is great advice. Getting back to basics with troubleshooting the problem is the best way to isolate the trouble and get George closer to getting that ride going again. The reason I mentioned the ignition switch is when cranking the engine the resistor is out of the circuit. When you release the key as the engine begins to fire, the resistor goes back into the circuit. A short or bad connection in or at the switch could keep the circuit open.
 
Longgone said:
Nothingbutdarts, that is great advice. Getting back to basics with troubleshooting the problem is the best way to isolate the trouble and get George closer to getting that ride going again. The reason I mentioned the ignition switch is when cranking the engine the resistor is out of the circuit. When you release the key as the engine begins to fire, the resistor goes back into the circuit. A short or bad connection in or at the switch could keep the circuit open.
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Yea, sorry. I hadn't read back in the posts to see you mentioned the ign. switch. The jumper wire will eliminate any concern there quickly. I know George is at his whits end!
 
pull plugs and clean them. after all this they may be fouled. hate to think this was a dirty set of plugs and an originally flooded motor,hold your finger over each plug hole while someone turns it over and check for compression on each cylinder may be a rocker shaft loosened up. but at any rate gas and spark are no good without compression. make sure connections at starter relay are tight also. i think it is the brown one that can keep it from running. If you can find a 20. ohm meter check continuity on the wires in the primary circuit for resistance. a cracked wire can cause a problem like this especially the wire that runs to the points. if one has a lot of resistance jumper around it. hope this helps. wish ya were in houston. i could use a wrenching bud.
 
nothingbutdarts said:
George,
Don't worry about the dist. drive gear bushing at all! NOT your problem.

You need to have a good spark. Again, pull the coil wire gently out of the dist. cap for starters. Have someone crank the engine while you hold it close to a ground. The spark should jump at least 1/8" to 1/4"! Yes. wear gloves or hold the wire with insulated pliars.

Tell us about the gasoline. Is it brand new? Are you sure it's good? Water in it or mixed with diesel or who knows?

The one wire from the dist. to the coil, is it hooked on the (-) or negative side of the coil?

Another important check would, to BE SURE while cranking, that you are getting BATTERY VOLTAGE to the (+) side of the coil! You will have to measure battery voltage while cranking @ the battery then jump over to the coil. It should be very close to the same reading. Like 11.5v. at battery and 11.0v. at the coil. An easy check for this is to have a jumper wire, attach one end to the (+) battery and the other side to the coil (+) and try to start it. If it starts take the jumper wire off.
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Kim-
Gas is brand new, I filled the 5 gal gas can, then put more gas in my Ram from the same pump at the same time so I know the fuel is good. I poured the gas from the 5 gal can into the Dart, then went back and got another 5 gallons from the same pump.
The single wire from the dist is connected to the NEG post on the coil.
I will try the jumper wire from the POS battery post to the POS terminal of the coil tomorrow, kids just went to bed.

daredevil said:
pull plugs and clean them. after all this they may be fouled. hate to think this was a dirty set of plugs and an originally flooded motor,hold your finger over each plug hole while someone turns it over and check for compression on each cylinder may be a rocker shaft loosened up. but at any rate gas and spark are no good without compression. make sure connections at starter relay are tight also. i think it is the brown one that can keep it from running. If you can find a 20. ohm meter check continuity on the wires in the primary circuit for resistance. a cracked wire can cause a problem like this especially the wire that runs to the points. if one has a lot of resistance jumper around it. hope this helps. wish ya were in houston. i could use a wrenching bud.
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I don't think the engine is flooded. Last week I pulled a few plugs after cranking the engine over for (seemingly hours) a while, and they were dry as a bone. Thats why I thought the carb was bad.
I can do a compression check, but like I said the car ran like a top until all of a sudden, while idling in my garage, it quit.
I will check all connections at the starter relay.
All the wiring harnesses from the firewall forward are brand new except for the wiper motor wiring. My wipers don't work, but could this have any effect on the engine running? The wipers haven't worked since I put the car back together.
I wish I had a wrenchin buddy too. I'm about to pay Kim's airfare to come out here and fix this thing for me!

I'll report back tomorrow. Thanks for all the help so far guys.

George
 
For some reason Kim, I don't feel like I'll have good news to share.
We shall see buddy.

George
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
redfastback said:
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.
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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.

PLUMCRAZY said:
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.
Click to expand...

I am leaning towards a bad distributor myself, but I have been wrong in the past.

68 Sedan said:
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.
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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
 
Power wire from the POS side of the battery to the POS side of the coil did nothing........

Still working on it.

George
 
Well I hate to say this but here goes anyway,the fuel pump eccentric sounds like it has came loose,I have seen this happen before on a friends car and he described the same symptoms,I finally talked him into letting me pull the fuel pump and we used a mirror to look in there,it would run sometimes and sometimes not with all the same symptoms you listed.we pulled the timing cover and pulled the bolt the rest of the way,had to replace the woodruff key and put her back together and viola'.end of story.and sounds like timing chain should be changed while your in there,look over harmonic balancer for wear groove and maybe put a seal saver if it needs it too.Good Luck Curtis
 
I checked all the electrical connectors and plugs on the bulkhead connector as well as the starter relay and ign switch and all look clean and are tight.
I just checked again, and I have 7 volts at the POS coil post with the key on and engine off so that should be good. Only thing I can think of is a bad distributor, but I have no idea why iy would just "go bad" like that.

I ordered a remanufactured distributor from the local parts store but I won't have it until tomorrow so I'm **** outta luck for today I guess.

I am still open for suggestions.
How can I test the distributor at home to be sure it isn't working correctly??
Anything I can look for that would show it as not usable?
I don't know what else to do here.......

Thanks guys,
George
 
waggin said:
Well I hate to say this but here goes anyway,the fuel pump eccentric sounds like it has came loose,I have seen this happen before on a friends car and he described the same symptoms,I finally talked him into letting me pull the fuel pump and we used a mirror to look in there,it would run sometimes and sometimes not with all the same symptoms you listed.we pulled the timing cover and pulled the bolt the rest of the way,had to replace the woodruff key and put her back together and viola'.end of story.and sounds like timing chain should be changed while your in there,look over harmonic balancer for wear groove and maybe put a seal saver if it needs it too.Good Luck Curtis
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Hi Curt-
Last week I changed the timing chain & gears, and the fuel pump. I checked the eccentric for the fuel pump while I had it apart and it didn't show any signs of wear. I am getting fuel to the carb now.
Thanks for your input.
Did you get my PM about the brake booster??? I never heard back from you.

George
 
I'm starting to wonder if you accidently stopped at the diesel pump or jsut bought bad gas. I know you tryed to run off a gas jug before but maybe not long enough to get the bad out of the carb and now have bad fuel in the new carb.
You know you have spark if adjusting the timing effects how it turns over.
Fuel and spark are all thats needed. The quality of one or the other is your problem.
After 5 pages here and 200 plus spent there we should have found the fault by now.
I can't help but recall my uncle and his K car type Lebarron convertile (long time ago). He had it towed to the dealership 4 times and spent 3 times as much as you have. Electric fuel pump, fuel pump regulater, ECU. Problem was water in the gas the whole time.
 
George,
I have read this post for the first time and eventhough it is not my car and problem, I almost feel like it is.....you must be fustrated beyond belief!!!!! Everyone has already given you all the suggestion that I would give for you to try......

I guess I am just posting to say hang in there!!! It ran once, it will run again.... Don't let it win!!!! We are all rooting for you!
 
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