Did you loosen or pull the fuel line at the carb and crank over? Pull the wire from the + side of the coil so no spark is going on while cranking. I don't but one should. If completely loose from the carb fuel should pump out full line size and squirt 3 or 4 inches, in pulses of course.
Something so obvious I forgot; check the wire inside the distributor that runs to the points. If these wear a bare sport and ground when the advance moves the plate it will spit and sputter. Was a common occurrence back in the day.
Thought I had it~ I don't know if I mentioned on here about not seeing any smoke from this thing. Then I got to thinking that maybe the exhaust was restricted, and then I remembered the butterfly valve was stuck! Hammer, PB Blaster, and some time and walla~ the valve was freed up! I turned it to where the weighted part was horizontal. (It had been vertical) Fired up the truck and ran the RPMs up. Not nearly the problems that it had been having *and* my garage was filled with smoke. Anyhow, I worked on it a bit more so it is absolutely free. (at least for the moment) Got in and fired it back up. Unfortunately, it still is far from smooth running at increased RPMs. So I still need to check for leaks around the carb/intake manifold. Then Go through the whole tuneup thing like it had never been done. I'm trying to remember if I changed the condenser to 12 volt... It's been so long ago, I don't know if I did or not. I know I got a new coil, but... I guess I can also add to the list, "Go through old receipts". Oh, and the fuel filter hardly ran any visible gas through it~ Back to that again...
These old distributors don't move the internal plate, it moves the whole distributor. I'm pretty sure I had Paul remove the vacuum advance tube and symptom remained the same. If not, try it Paul.
Zig, I hesitate to jump in here, but I'm wondering about your gas tank. I can't remember if you bought a new one, but, if you have rust, dirt, of any other "junk" in it, enough gas might get through to run, but, restrict it at high rpm. That new pump can't pump it if it can't get enough. Just a thought.
Thanks, Steve I've thought that too, but I drained all the bad gas out, blew the line out, flushed it with a bit of new gas and installed a brand new filter just out past the drain and well before the pump. It doesn't have any kind of junk in it except for just a very small bit of silt.
Maybe? So, after it still ran like junk at higher RPMs and a freed exhaust port, I decided it was time to just start over. I pulled all the plug wires, the cap, the plugs, turned the flywheel to the ball and found out an embarrassing thing~ When I had painted the block in TDC, the orange (?) paint sprayed over the ball and all the markings. There is NO WAY what I was timing was the shiny ball. It had to have been a drilled and tapped hole that was part of the clutch plate mounting system. My rear main leaks a bit, and the oil got on things. The reflection the light was bouncing off of must have been an edge of one of those drilled and threaded holes. It's not a perfect light, and my eyes aren't either, at this point in my life~ As far as I got tonight was lining up TDC on # 1 and finding out the gap was too tight. I gaped it to 18, since it says between 16 and 20 Tomorrow I will reinstall the plugs, make sure where the rotor is pointing to know that is # 1, Put the cap on and start running plug wires. After that, I hope all will be good to go with ONE DAY to spare~ Am I right in my thinking that this is all I have to do? Will the timing still be good even though I wasn't on the timing mark that I will be now, or do I need to do something else? Thanks again for your insight. I only hope some day I can help a person here with good advice.
Wrong idea Zig. That 16 to 20 is 0.016" to 0.020" with a feeler gauge, and hopefully verified with a dwell meter. My manual calls for 0.016" and the dwell should be 28-35 degrees. The 0.016" setting is not done at TDC, it is done with the points opened to their maximum by the high point on the cam inside the distributor. This is done with the engine off and the distributor cap removed. Pretty easy to do on this distributor because you can rotate the distributor by hand without loosening it just by doing the same thing the vacuum advance does. Call me tomorrow and I'll walk you through the adjustment. I'm busy from 3 to 5 in the afternoon. Once you get the points set correctly you'll need to adjust the ignition timing again. We can do that on the phone too, but you should study up on the procedure here This is the 55-59 GMC manual, so ignore any V8 stuff and the fact that the first picture (figure 18) shows a starter solenoid that your truck does not have. If you have a timing light we will use the "with engine running" procedure starting at the end of page 320, if not we will use the "with engine not running" routine at the end of the first column on page 321.
I meant 0.016, I was just too lazy to type all those zeros. And I rolled it to the highest opening to get it to where I could check the gap. 0.016 wasn't even close. Way too close for even that gap. I noticed when I had it gapped correctly and tried to close down on that, when I turned the screw, it closed the gap. Probably what happened last time when I wasn't expecting that result? Anyway, the points are now at 0.016 gap and the distributor is rolled around to the timing mark. Shouldn't I be able to put the rotor on, put the cap on, and be sure #1 wire goes from the end of where the rotor is pointing and the follow the firing order from there with the other wires? Thanks Bill! Boy, I hope I can get this thing over the hump tomorrow~ The 4th car show looks to be good, weather wise!
Not quite Zig. With the pointer pointing at the ball the points need to just be opening, not at 0.016. RTFM under the "engine not running" section on page 321, then call me.
Well, I got it to that point, and then I went to the next lug to open the points. I missed. Then I went to the next lug. Missed again~ Went to the third lug before I stopped the points right at the highest open point. Checked it, but it wasn't close to the thickness of my 0.016 gauge. It was much tighter. That's where I get to thinking the first time I did this, I didn't catch how the points actually closed when I turned the set screw. I got it to where it is gapped right, I hope~ I think my problem is, I didn't count how many revolutions I went past #1, put the rotor on, and pretended it was pointing at # 1, instead of rotating the rotor all the way back to #1 and the timing mark before I put the cap and wires back on. (half way around?) God I hope this sounds logical... I'll find out tomorrow when I make sure the flywheel is at the timing mark, the points look closed, and the wires go to the plugs they are supposed to.
firing order Leave the wires where they are as long as they are in the correct firing order. Firing order is firing order. It doesn't matter where the rotor is pointing when you finally get the gap set. Points ALWAYS move as you tighten the holding screw down. It's one of the "charming" things about points.
Thanks, Bill and Andy. And thank you Bill for letting me know when I can call. I hope I'll be able to call with good news.
So with Bill Hanlon's help, turns out when I installed the distributor, I had it in 180 degrees off. That's why it wouldn't start. I just flipped the cap 180 (which also aligned the key in the cap with the one in the rim of the distributor body, I didn't even notice before...) and it fired right off. Adjusting the gap in the points seemed to make a difference, but that could also be that the cap is now sitting flush on the distributor~ who knows. Still the same old thing of increasing RPMs and getting increased, random misfires. Evan, the wire in the coil was okay.
I was thinking that I need to go back through things and check timing and vacuum since I changed the points. Question~ Since I put the distributor in 180 degrees from where it needed to be, I assume the timing marks on the flywheel will remain hidden? The other thing I did was started it up and then ran up the RPMs where it was doing the obvious random missing and sprayed some starter fluid in it to see if the roughness wanted to smooth out. It didn't.
What a difference a day makes~ So I went out and checked the vacuum. Yesterday (when I was young) I had 16" Today, I have 7" On my gauge, that says "late valve timing or leak at intake manifold or heat riser" The needle just made it to the part that says, "normal fuel pump".
I'm not sure what the RPms at idle are... I did go out and start it up and douse the intake manifold one section at a time again with starter fluid. No change.
You may simply just need to advance or retard your distributor I like to lock the octane sensor at zero. Slightly Loosen body clamp Then rotate body by hand , counter clockwise to advance, clockwise to retard. Again. Not saying this is your problem. Just something to add to the list Does your timing light have an advance dial on the back?
