Robbrob

I had a charger on it overnight, drove it up to the shop and was checking the wiring for the turn signals (another issue I gotta figure out) and I had the headlights on for about a half hour and it acted like it had a lot of power left and then all of a sudden it just lost everything, wouldn’t crank or anything so I threw a charger on it for a couple hours then it fired up and acted fine. Then later that night I fired it up again to let it warm up to drive home, that’s when my issues started. It acted dead again so I put it back on the charger and this morning when I took it off the charger it was still dead. The battery is a few years old and sat for awhile so I wouldn’t be surprised if it is shot.

I know it sounds like a short of some sort but that sounds odd to me considering it was working fine a few minutes prior.

I had my car idling with the headlights on and when I came out a few minutes later the car was off and was flat dead, no cranking or clicking when I turned the key. I got it jumped and it idled for a few minutes then started to stall until I pumped the gas then it would idle for a few more minutes. When I tired to turn the headlights on it was like the ignition got cut off. I got it in the garage and shut it off then tried to fire it back up and it was flat dead again. I’m pretty sure the battery is shot but I would think the charging system would keep it running unless it’s not working. I have it in a charger and will see what happens tomorrow. I would have it revved up and the headlights would still kill it. The headlights wouldn’t come on at all either when I hit the switch.

Oh believe me I’m on probably the 4th one thinking I was getting bad condensers. is there a reputable brand that makes them anymore? The ones I have are all the parts store brands.

Ok so I haven’t been able to work on the car for the past couple days which is why I haven’t replied, but I just put new plugs in it tonight because the car quit running and they were pretty black i got some non resistor plugs and put in it and it fired right up and when I rev it it still misses but it seems to be higher in the rev range. so my question is this, if the dwell time is in fact too short (I still haven’t found a meter to test it so I’m not sure if it is) could the resistor in the old spark plugs coupled with the lack of time for the coil to charge make the effect of the short dwell worse? also on a side note what oil should I put in the oil bath air cleaner is straight 30 weight ok? thanks for the advice I really appreciate it

I have not checked it with a dwell meter ill have to find one and check it.

Yes it does it under load and in neutral.

My car is a 1951 dodge meadowbrook with a 230 inline 6. It has a high end miss and won’t rev out the whole way, acts like it has a rev limiter and will only go about 50 mph now. I’ve replaced the points, condenser, cap, rotor, and spark plugs thinking it was an ignition related issue and it hasn’t fixed it. Now I’m starting to think it’s a carburetor issue. Has anyone had any issues like this? Also I tried 2 other carbs on it and it didn’t help but the carbs I put on it were sitting for years so I already about figured they wouldn’t help but I gave it a shot anyhow. A lot of the wires on the car are cloth insulated and it’s all falling apart so it may be shorting out somewhere, but Is there any reason why it would only short out at high rpm and at the same rpm all the time? the car has a stromberg BXVD-3 on it thanks