starting problem after points, rotor & cap change
 

i just finished replacing my rotor, distributor cap, and points. i gapped the points, and went to start the car.

nothing.

checked for spark, and i've got it. although it looked a bit weak. i sprayed a bit of starting fluid in the throttle stacks and it started to "catch", but didn't.

now the car just turns over and doesn't run. i'm going back now to double check everything.

prior to doing this work, the car was running a little rough at idle, and it was about due for a tuneup. i pulled a plug and it looked normal (i.e., not gas-fouled).

any ideas?

Recheck your dwell and timing. :D Jim

TMC,

Assuming you pulled the distributor to do the points and clean and oil it properly ... you may have gotten it back in one tooth off, which makes it hard to start and backfire and runn badly -- if it does start!

When are you going to scan that overpriced '73 brochure I let you win on eBay? If I had bid on it ... it would have cost you more than twice that much to get it!

When you have finished scanning it, please feel free to send it to my email address also.

i'll sell it to you for $100.........(just kidding). i found it totally by accident and bid on it just before leaving for christmas vacation. no one else bid.

i just opened it up yesterday after returning from vacation. it is pretty cool.

i'll work on scanning it after i get the damn '73 running again !

i hate when this stuff happens.

actually, i did not pull the distributor. i am getting spark, so i believe i may have put the plug wires "1 hole off" when i was transferring them from the existing cap to the new one.

i'm not quite sure what i did, but i got the car started again. i didn't really change anything, except i re-sprayed starting fluid into all the stacks and opened the throttle valves to make sure it got into the combustion chambers.

it took a few times to re-gap the points, and re-set timing, but finally got it at 5 degrees ATD and approx. 40 degrees dwell.

the whole time i was trouble shooting this, i had spark. i pulled several different plugs and none of them had any fuel on them, as often is the case when you flood a car.

i'm theorizing that i never got the MFI system to pressurize high enough to get fuel past the injectors. i'm just grasping at this one because i can't trace anything specific thing other than the starting fluid that would lead to the sudden inability to start the car.

oh well, as long as it is working now.

now, onto scanning that '73 brochure !

TMC:

If you are not doing so already use a Dwell meter on those points for a far more accurate adjustment.

John