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Help ... Ignition or Fuel related

1K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  GT289 
#1 ·
1st off ... I think it's ignition .. but want some opinions ... diagnosis help :)

Changed Dist. the other day (reman'd) one. Never adjusted the points on it. just installed .. timed and go .... YES I KNOW read on...

Put everything back in place .. started the car .. all good .... no issues.

The day after went for a drive .... not even 5 min into it .. car was surging ... like it was missing gas or something .... did not stall on me .. but was like bucking ....... and then it went away ... I figured some crap in the fuel .. it made it's way through .. drove around .. on the highway all good ...

The next day ... same thing ... drove it around .. and then it did the same exact thing .. pressing on the gas more did nothing much ... felt like it was actually dieing more ... so I pulled over ... then it died on me.
Waited like 1-2 min .. cranked .. started no issue and was idling ok.... so drove it home .... later that evening ... did the same thing ... drove it out again .. same thing ... died on me .. and then it would start .. and die again right away ... figured again fuel crap etc ... drove it quick quick on the hiway .. felt like it was dieing and then it happened ... BABOOM... backfire .... 1st time ever happened to me ... :p scared the crap out of me etc .....
pulled over ... and it died ... then it took forever to start .. cause it would die almost instanteously .... anyhow .. got it to start .. drove it home.

Later that night decided to recheck all the plug wires on the cap .. for the coil etc ... then it hit me .. the points ... so mine is supposed to be set at .21" ..... took my feeler gauge and the .20 would not even fit .... so I re-adjusted to spec .. now can that have caused my issue ???
Reason I'm asking is that mother F-ning-Nature is not co-operating here this weekend and it's of course raining ....

any ideas ? thoughts ??? :shrug:
Cap is new, plugs, wires, coil etc .. not even 200miles ...

Thanks again ...
Ralph
 
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#5 ·
How's your engine temp? I had a similar thing happen and is was due to a crank in the intake manifold letting coolant seep out, causing the manifold to get too hot and cause the fuel to boil out of the bowl. Also I would check to make sure the carbs not running too lean as this would also cause the afore mentioned symptoms at highway speeds.
- Chris
 
#6 ·
Problems solved. Just started her in the garage and died and surged and bucked
so I pulled out condenser and points from the old dist
That were new anyhow.... replaced and started like. Charm.... went for a little spin.. all seems good......could it be the other condenser and points were that bad....
 
#7 ·
most likely the condenser. I had the same issue last summer. got stuck on my maiden voyage 5 miles from the house with my rebuilt dizzy that I had Tim do . same engine symptoms and BS as you described.. spent a 1/2 on the side of the road troubleshooting the big stuff after all failed I reached into the glove box installed my spare cond and away I went.

in a pinch you can just remove it an it will get you home without having it hooked up.
 
#11 ·
The order was not switched .... that's for sure else it would have been a disaster from the 1st crank ....

As far as the pertronix module etc ... i was planning to real soon .. what's the advantage of the regular one over the ign II ???
 
#12 ·
It wouldn't be a disaster from the first crank neccesarily. I had two wires switched by accident... ran like what you describe at higher rpms, and getting on it hard enough to open the secondaries. But, motor ran, idled, and drove around. It was just a thought, not well... there was something very wrong... but it ran.
 
#14 ·
I just had a similair issue. My vote is to get rid of the points dizzy all together, wouldn't bother with Pertronix. I had the ignitor and thought it was great, till something went wrong, after 2 different ignitors and a points not giving me spark I swapped in a Duraspark distributor and it fires up like a brand new car. Just my .02 you can make it look almost factory also.
 
#15 ·
Your condensor was going away internally due to the heat.
I also wouldn't bother with Pertronix. Ran them when they
were called Per-lux...... ownership changes have led to
changes in quality. Not so reliable these days.
Magnetic pickup is the ultimate. Use the duraspark distributor
and blue grommet duraspark 2 module. (or red grommet DS 1 if you can find one)

Red wire- power- key on
Purple- plus pick-up coil
Orange- minus pick-up coil
White- start retard- "S" terminal on starter relay
Case- negative ground
Green- ignition coil negative
 
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