The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Need some help guys...

A few months back (Novemberish) my 53 started acting up a little. Id warm her up for a good 10-15 minutes before Id drive her anywhere. Under increased load, such as hitting the gas hard or going up hill she would bog down and stutter some. After about a good 30 minutes of running though she would seem to drive beautifully. I adjusted the timing, tune up, etc... I went over to a friends a few weeks back and she decided that she didnt want to be out that day. I made it over there although it wasnt a nice trip. I pulled the plugs and they were a little sooty, so I swapped them out. She seemed to run ok as we left to go to some old car geeks house. About a 1/8th of a mile up a huge hill she stuttered and died. So I backed her down the hill and tinkered a little and finally got her running. We got her back to my friends house and I couldnt get her running again. So on the trailer she went and back to my place.

First off, I swapped for another 6 volt coil. Checked to see if I had power to the positive side of the coil with the ignition on, yes. Checked to see if I had power from the coil to the distributor as I turned it over, yes. New cap, rotor, points (adjusted 0.020), condensor, plug wires and I have 3 sets of spark plugs (gapped properly at 0.35) Ive tried now, cycling through them in case they got fouled. Pulled the wires one at a time and checked each cylinder to make sure I had spark at each cylinder, yup.

Then I compression tested each cylinder with about 110-115 pounds of pressure each (not bad for being 54 years old!). Rebuilt the fuel pump as I believed the old one was leaking into the engine. Gas is puddling a little in the intake manifold, plenty of pressure from the fuel pump to the carb.

I pulled the valve cover off and turned it over until I watched the intake valve on the #1 cylinder (the one at the front) close, then I turned it over another 1/4 turn-ish until the ball (5 deg after TDC) came up on the pointer on the flywheel. I then popped the cap off and checked the rotors orientation and aligned the distributor as close as possible with the #1 plug wire. Not even a pop or sputter.

Ive let it sit with the throttle wide open, no plugs and turned it over like that randomly so it would air out the gas from the cylinders. 3 days later I plugged everything back in and got almost half a sputter for a split second.

So we have fuel, compression and spark which leaves timing. I started out having the dizzy as close to perfect as possible. Flipped the ignition on and started turning it just a few degrees at a time in each direction for a total of about 20 degrees each way. Still nothing, no pop, no sputter, nothing.

The rotation of the plugs on the cap is proper, as well as the firing order, etc... Ive gone through the check list a dozen times now and rechecked everything. Any ideas???

I need help. Thanks, Jeff

Just to make sure the ignition timing is right, try this little trick: Pull the valve cover, and watch the rocker arms on #6 cylinder, not #1. Roll the engine over slowly by putting the transmission in 3rd gear, and pushing the truck forward until the #6 exhaust valve opens (last rocker arm in line). Continue rolling the engine over until the exhaust closes, and the intake just begins to open.

At that point, the #1 cylinder will be on top of the compression stroke, ready to fire the spark plug. The distributor rotor should be pointing at the #1 plug connector in the distributor cap. If it's pointing anywhere else, you're out of time! Now, turn the distributor housing clockwise until the points close, then turn it back counterclockwise until they just barely open. The ignition timing will be within a couple of degrees of the correct setting.

Try a NEW, not cleaned-up set of spark plugs. I've seen new-looking plugs get fuel-soaked, and they never fire again! Good luck!
Jerry

Jeff...For what it's worth, I had similar problems(we tried every fix we could think of) which I traced back to that wonderful Rochester 1bbl...it would load up under similar circumstances to yours..hence, the sputtering, coughing and gas smell. We ultimately determined we had too much fuel pressure...went to NAPA bought an inexpensive in-line adjustable fuel pressure regulator and dialed it down to about 4 to 4.5 lbs and the truck ran like a charm.

Hotrod Ill try that, Thanks.

steveg, I know its not a fuel issue as my truck had a good running Carter YF carb on there and I recently rebuilt and installed a Rochestor B well after this happened. The small amount of fuel in the intake is from me trying to start it repeatedly.

Jeff,

It seems this problems came on very gradually. It wasn't a catastrophic failure. It slowly got worse and worse until the poor old truck refused to run.

Things like timing, points, cap plugs and wires are usually OK, or not OK. Fuel and carburetion on the other hand can be a progressive thing. Water in the tank sloshing and slowly plugging jets...junk pulsing through the fuel line eventially plugging the needle or filter. These are the things I would look at...fuel system things.

If you squirt fuel or staring fluid into the carburetor and it pops or runs, it's usually a indication the ignition system is working as are all the other mechanical system.

It sure sounds like a fuel problems to me...maybe a collapsed rubber fuel hose..dig around and let us know.

Stuart

Stuart Im about 99.5% sure it isnt fuel related. If anything it started with the onset of our cold weather in Oct-Nov. Shes garaged except when I drive her, so other then condensation there was no chance for water in the gas. I almost always fill the tank up on the way home also, so condensation is not real likely in my opinion.

The day before all this I swapped out the cap and rotor and it made a night and day difference. I probably put 150 miles on her. Then the next day, struggling like mad????

I did take the YF apart and to my dismay I found nothing inside, looked and blew out all the passages with no change in behavior.

Thats when I thought to rebuild and start fresh with a Rochestor B. So I spent a few days soaking and cleaning that carb. Blew out all the passeges and bolted her up. I get a steady squirt of fuel and as stated above there is a small amount of fuel puddling in the intake and I rebuilt the fuel pump since it appeared I wasnt getting the appropriate amount of pressure to the carb, theres plenty of pressure now.

Starting fluid (as much as I hate the stuff) didnt have much effect. I occasionally got a stutter, but nothing more then a split second or so.

Im back at it once again... Thanks, Jeff

Hy rustednuts, all I can think of is a weak spark, if it was running then the timing couldn't have been that far out. We had a case a week or two ago where there was a poor ground at the distributer point mounting plate, resulting in no spark. You say you have spark in the air, but is it enough to fire plugs under compression, what colour is the spark, if it's not blue it's not very strong, hope that helps.

make sure your distributer has a good ground! pull the cap,turn motor by hand until rotor is pointing to # 1 wire on cap,pull distributer and clean area where it contacts the block and also check your ground from block to frame,frame to body by removing and cleaning with brake cleaner and wire brush. my forklift was acting up(chrysler ind. flathead 6) driving me crazy and after cleaning the grounds it stopped acting up. if you have solid lifters make sure they are not gummed up. have you done a compression test yet? that will tell you what the valves are doing. if it has fresh plugs and your using starting fluid and valves are operating properly (meaning you have correct compression) ignition is only thing left.