The clock is running but not as fast as my

[Don Coatney]

Degree of frustration. As I noted in a prior thread I installed a replacement distributor, found, and thought I fixed a problem with the rotor. The engine was running great after I installed the replacement rotor. So I elected to clean up my engine a bit using spray can carb cleaner. Spent all day Tuesday and a good bit of time Wednesday working on the car. I sprayed down both carburetors and cleaned up the outside of the carburetors only. I did a test run and discovered that the front carburetor was flooding terribly. I removed the carburetor and disassembled it. The float valve passed the blow test but it would not shut off when the carburetor bowl filled. So I swapped in a float valve from a spare carburetor I had on the shelf. This seemed to fix the flooding problem. I removed and cleaned the spark plugs and the engine once again appeared to run great. But I did not go for a test drive. This morning I started the engine and while idling it sounded pretty good but seemed to have an occasional hiccup. I elected to let it come up to operating temperature and go for a test drive. It ran terribly. Every time I attempted to accelerate the engine would miss fire. Not as if it was running out of gas but as if it were not getting spark all the time at the right time. Time is running out as I plan on leaving in the morning for a trip to Tim Adams stable. As of now I will not be driving my car on this trip unless I get a sudden burst of energy to continue trouble shooting, find and fix whatever ails my engine. I suspect it is distributor related. I would install my old distributor but the vacuum advance is shot.

[Jim Yergin]

Don,

Sorry to hear about the problem. But didn't you say that even with the bad vacuum advance the car ran well with the old distributor? Would using the old distributor at least make it possible to drive to Tim's?

Jim Yergin

[Young Ed]

Don failure is not an option

[Norm's Coupe]

Sorry to hear about your car not running well. Maybe it just needs a Tums to stop the hiccup.

[Don Coatney]

Don failure is not an option

You are correct Ed failure is not an option. Postponment is an option. I think I will go swap in my old condensor.

[greg g]

did you get the primary coil wire down good and seated???

[blueskies]

Sounding like 2nd place, again...

Maybe it's time for a trouble free HEI?

Pete

[Don Coatney]

4 hours later. Not yet resolved sort of. Progress and regress. I installed the original distributor and the misfire problem has been corrected. New points in the old distributor but for an as of yet unresolved issue I cannot dial in the timing. I have run out of time.

[Don Coatney]

did you get the primary coil wire down good and seated???

Yep!

[48mirage]

Can't get the timing dialed in? Sounds like you may also have too much slack in your timing chain.

[Don Coatney]

Once again running like the race winner that she is. Having tweaked the distributor timimg both ways using the major and minor timing slots and still having way too much advance I came to the conclusion that I needed to rotate my wires one retarding notch in the distributor cap. Keep in mind that this distributor is the original dual point distributor (has new points now) that I have driven for 25,000 miles. This problem started when I installed a replacement distributor. I moved the wires in the replacement distributor in order to make it run. I had to move the wires back to the original slot in my original distributor to make it run correctly. I now have the timing set at about 2 degrees advanced and it is running great. I have driven about 50 miles sence I made this adjustment and the engine has not once faltered. I do not have a working vacuum advance in this distributor. Wonder if it will run better if I fix the vacuum advance?

[John Mulders]

you kept us in suspence !

Glad you solved it.

John

[dirty dan]

Sounding like 2nd place, again...

Maybe it's time for a trouble free HEI?

Pete

DON'T DO IT DON!!!!

Suffer like a man along with the rest of us purists!

[Rodney Bullock]

Don, I knew you would figure that problem out. I asked you before what you ment by one position off at the dist. now I know. I wonder why your dual point is so different from the spare.The vacum advance id important however if you compensate the timing (advance) I thought you could run the car with success. I noticed that on my chevy truck when the vac. advance went out I could not pull hills very well. It makes a huge difference without advancing the timing. I think Tim would get a kick out of fixing your advance once you got up there anyway. I wish I was going as I have talked to tim and he seems to be a real dynamo:D

[Norm's Coupe]

Wonder if it will run better if I fix the vacuum advance?

It will run better if you dropped a nice 350 crate motor and 350 transmission in there. Faster too.

[blueskies]

It will run better if you dropped a nice 350 crate motor and 350 transmission in there. Faster too.

But then he'd have to suffer all the shame and grief of being just another one of the belly buttons.

Pete

[Don Coatney]

But then he'd have to suffer all the shame and grief of being just another one of the belly buttons.

Pete

You know I will not do that. Now if I found an Offenhauser or Novi Indy 500 engine I would consider dropping that in:cool:

[Norm's Coupe]

But then he'd have to suffer all the shame and grief of being just another one of the belly buttons.

Pete

But his shame would be overridden by the smile on his face as he passes everyone up. And when he gets repair parts much cheaper.

[Don Coatney]

But his shame would be overridden by the smile on his face as he passes everyone up. And when he gets repair parts much cheaper.

I pass everyone up now and I have not spent much on repair parts in the last 25,000 miles. How much have you spent on repair parts in the last 47 miles? Three fuel pumps if I remember correctly.

[Young Ed]

Don just tell Norm you'll start installing a 350 the day he finishes putting one in his coupe. You'll be safe for life

[Norm's Coupe]

Don just tell Norm you'll start installing a 350 the day he finishes putting one in his coupe. You'll be safe for life

I wouldn't bet the bank on that one Ed.

[Norm's Coupe]

I pass everyone up now and I have not spent much on repair parts in the last 25,000 miles. How much have you spent on repair parts in the last 47 miles? Three fuel pumps if I remember correctly.

That's about right Don (except for the miles), 3 fuel pumps is about all. But.........just like any other car, the day will come when we both need more than what we've bought so far. That said, I've retired as of about a month ago from working on cars (new or old). From now on, I'll just drive them and let someone else crawl under them, etc. I'll just put gas and oil in them now.

[blueskies]

...I'll just put gas and oil in them now...

Judging from the length of your driveway, doesn't sound like you'll be doing much of that either...

Pete

[Norm's Coupe]

It's warming up now, and the coupe tank is getting low. So........I'll be taking it to the station this weekend sometime for a fill up. That should last a couple of months or so. Just filled up the van last week. That's at least a months supply or more for it.

I look at it this way. My engine will stay new while you and Don wear yours out. Plus, by not driving either car as much I'm also helping conserve gas to help keep prices lower for you guys. And, at the same time I'm also doing my part to cut down on the global warming and green house effect on our planet. Someone has to compensate for you and Don's contribution to all this.

[Don Coatney]

Norm;

You are full of crap:cool: