2.7L Rebuilt, Running with Gremlins

Rob McKibbon · 04-23-2003, 07:35 AM

Hi Guys/Gals - First, Thanks to everyone who helped me get this rebuild completed - Could not have done it without you!

The cars running great with the exception of my gremlin passengers, 2 funny things from no where?

1. Driving up a steep hill in the Rockies, when "BANG" a loud backfire, and I mean Loud. This carries on for a bit every so often and I figure the fuel mixture must be a little out when I'm heavy on the peddle??? But then she just dies, nothing. I'm on the highway cruising about 60 mph. Clutch in and out, but won't fire.

A short rest, it turns over but won't fire. I pulled the Dcap and Rotor, blew everything clean. Checked all the connections and put it back on. I'm not sure, but it seemed when I pulled the Dcap that it may have been slightly off alignment? Turned it over and started like a charm. No problems since, runs perfect.

Any ideas what happened? I'm clueless, but it scared me at the time.

2. Twice now, the starter won't engage. Everything works when you turn the key on. Everything is tight, full power, etc. But the key doesn't engage the starter. First time, I jumped it. Second time it worked after several minutes of sitting.

I just redid all the wiring from the ignition switch and everything was working and tested 100%. But these 2 times? I never replaced the switch yet? But any ideas or thoughts I could investigate would be helpful?

Not the most serious questions, but I wouldn't mind some brain storming ideas to help me out? At this point, I just want the thing to run perfect!

Thanks again

Rob McKibbon · 04-24-2003, 08:01 AM

I got some great trouble shooting tips from this thread for the electrical problem, will start to trouble shoot by checking the connections, etc. as suggested. Any other ideas?

Starter problem

The car hasn't backfired since resetting the Dcap.

Thanks in advance!

Bob Spindel · 04-24-2003, 04:58 PM

Rob,

I bet your distributor cap **was** a bit misaligned. The result was that the spark jumped to the wrong plug, and you had a midfire, or backfire. There's greater stress under load, which explains why it happened a lot going uphill.

I once haad this happen. The cap somehow got loose--probably my fault, who else's?--and the engine popped and backfired quite badly.

john walker's workshop · 04-24-2003, 05:48 PM

any tiny speck of dust, or film, on the points will do that. wipe the points with the corner of a fresh dollar bill. replace them if they're old and have a gray contact spot between them. i've had new points do that, and you wipe them again and it starts right up.
starters get heat soaked and don't work until they cool a bit. or it may just be old and tired.