Backfire

[sam knopik]

Battery is fully charged, I get spark, engine turns over but wont start. I get an occasionally pop and choke out of the carburetor and tailpipe....

 

Any suggestions?

[Don Coatney]

Was the engine running before? What changes hve been made prior to this issue?

[sam knopik]

It was running fine.. but I could tell the timing was starting to misfire. Then she just died one afternoon and I have not been able to get it started since. I have done the routine tune-up maintenance hoping that would do the trick. I have searched through the forum and found some tips that I will try tomorrow.

[Don G 1947]

Sam,

 

Have you checked the timing?  There are 2 bolts that hold the distributor in place; one goes into the block and the other into the bottom of the distributor.  Are both of those tight?

 

Also, when you look down the carb is there gas squirting into throat when you activate the throttle linkage?

 

Don

[MBF]

Take #1 spark plug out and turn it over until it comes up on compression and is at TDC.  Remove the dist cap and see if the rotor is pointing to the #1 terminal in the distributor cap. That will tell if its in time.  If it isn't-you need to figure out what happened-could be the dist housing moveda timing chain or other.   If that's ok, pull the coil wire out of the dist cap and put it near a ground (the block is fine).  Open and close the points with the key on. If the wire fires to ground that verifies your coil is ok.   From there I'd check to make sure the points open and close properly, and then gap them (actually you may want to do that first)   Next step is to check to see if you've got fuel.  Try giving it a shot of carb cleaner down the throat of the carb and see if it does anything.  If it runs, you may have a plugged line, stuck float in the carb or bad fuel pump.  Good luck-you'll feel good when you find what went wrong and fixed it.  Mike

Edited January 27, 2013 by MBFowler

[Don Coatney]

It was running fine.. but I could tell the timing was starting to misfire. Then she just died one afternoon and I have not been able to get it started since. I have done the routine tune-up maintenance hoping that would do the trick. I have searched through the forum and found some tips that I will try tomorrow.

 

What routine tune-up maintenance stuff did you do? And while doing this did you find any thing wrong? As an example is the distributor cap cracked? The spring loaded button that contacts the rotor working correctly? Etc....

[Plymouthy Adams]

also did you get the right cap..difference in the height..causes spark gap trasfer problems..