OJH is the man--the ignition points were badly pitted. It would run fine when warm, but wouldn't keep an idle more than 5 minutes and would sputter and gag and quit on open throttle when cold.
Must have been a weak enough spark that under load it would flame out and not ignite when the motor was not warmed up.
Turns out it has been 4 years since I went through and did a complete tune-up. Seemed to me to only be a couple of years. So new points, condensor, cap, rotor, wires and plugs, and she runs like a Singer sewing machine again.
I was going to put in the Pertronix, but could not find where the ballast resister was (to pick up a full 12VDC for the red wire on the Pertronix solid state pickup). So I punted and put in normal points. There must be a resistor wire somewhere, as there was only 4.5VDC at the positive lug on the coil--but it must be a long one and bundled into the normal wiring harness?? I will Google...
One reason I had not pulled the distributor cap (other than thinking everything was pretty new in there) is that on the big block V6's it is in the back under the firewall and you basically have to lay on top of the motor (avoiding the eye-gouging air cleaner stud on the Holley) to get to it. Prepare yourself with a good flashlight and a collection of stubby flat screwdrivers to get to everything. You may even want to practice your cussing before attemping. The coil is back there too and is not the easiest to change out either. Not to mention it is a pain getting old and not being able to see up close anymore.
Re-jetting the mains on the carb down two notches certainly didn't hurt anything, from looking at the plugs it was pig rich at cruise. Will get the son to check them after he drives it a while.
Thanks everyone, for your thoughts and comments on this one.
My son still has the Bendix Stromberg WW in storage...I may get it from him and order a rebuild kit, just for a fun winter project. Sounds like another topic, as I will surely have some questions.
Last edited by R-Bo; 12/01/2014 5:05 PM.
