The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 51 Chevy fleetline wont start....

My 51 Fleetline 235, 2 speed powerglide wont start. It has been sitting for a few months. I checked the spark, plugs, fuel pump. It was all fine. Even tried some starting fluid. I rebuilt the carb today, and jacked up the rear end to make sure it wasnt in gear. I turned the distributor while my wife turned it over. Still wont start. Anything else to check?

I'm having the same problem with my '46, 216. It won't start cold unless I spin it with a jump from a 12 volt. I think my problem is a combination of things like weak spark from dirty coil conections and maybe timing not advanced enough. I cleaned the electrical connections and put in new plugs. That's helped it start easier and run without a miss.
Have you tried a 12 volt jump? Make sure you're getting fuel to the carb. Pull the air cleaner and see if fuel squirts into the carb when you work the throttle linkage back & fourth if you haven't yet.
Jacques

Are you sure your getting fuel @ the carb? If you've got fuel, spark, compression, and timing is on, it should start. You may have to "choke" it real good to draw fuel into a rebuilt carb. Are the plugs fouled/wet? Have you made any changes to the ignition switch?

Swampcat were you been,haven;t seen you on here in a long time.

The plugs arent fouled. 2 of them were a bit wet after trying to start it and choking it alot. I was thinking about getting new ones. The ones in it I bought last summer. I will have to try the 12v jump too. I havent touched the ignition switch wiring. Will let you know what I find.....

If it is still six volt, try a jumper wire from the positive post of the battery to the positive post of the coil. See if it starts. If it does, the old wiring may not be able to carry enough current to the coil to saturate it.

Make sure points are gapped and clean. If you have spark out the coil wire, but not the dist. cap then either the cap is bad or the rotor is burnt through. (Don't know that 6 volt systems were prone to this)Leave the distributor cap off and have someone crank the enigne, watch the points and see of they have any spark there. If not, start there.

From what little I see here you aren't getting enough or any spark to the plugs. Even on 6 volt the spark should be pretty and blue. If it is orange or none at all then back up to the coil, condenser or points.

Make sure your plug wires don't have too much resistance. Some of the early resister wires had quite a lot of resistence & when they deteriate it's even worse. You might have it flooded. Try starting it with the throttle all the way down. This clears it out. With this new modern fuel injection we get used to starting without regard to throttle position.

Tommy, I've been checking out the 'bolt site from time to time but haven't logged in for a long time. Work, family, hurricanes...you name it I've got a list of reasons why I haven't touched my truck in about four years. Since this winter I've had the, "envie", (cajun French for desire), to get back in to tinkering with the '46 and get it back on the road. I'm doing little jobs on the truck as I can. I hope to put the cleaned up carb back on tomorrow. Good to hear from you too, Tommy.
Jacques

hey Jacques, good to hear you're still tryin, keep us up on what you're doin

Bill

I have the same problem when I park the truck over the winter out here on the wet coast of Canada. What I do is clean the points with a points file, then I turn over the motor until the points are open and spray them with contact cleaner. Try that and see if it works.