Hey, HAMBers! It's been a hot minute since I've posted anything, but I was hoping to tap into the vast knowledge for some help! This might be a long one, so strap in! The basics. '52 3100 with a 216 and Holley 2300 350 CFM 2bbl (don't hate me--it's the carb that was on the truck when I got it). Stock points distributor. Life has gotten in the way (two kids going to college, college visits, move-ins, working on kids cars, etc. I digress...) and I haven't been able to drive the old girl as much as I'd like. Let me preface this by saying that my ability exceeds my knowledge on this old truck. I know enough to be dangerous, but am not afraid to say I don't know what I don't know! 1. Motor wouldn't stay running no matter what I did. She'd fire right up, but quickly die even feathering the gas. Pulled the float bowl and metering block off the Holley and they were gunked up pretty badly. I cleaned all the gunk--blew carb cleaner and air both directions through every orifice on the metering block and bowl. New needle and seat, new power valve (8.5" power valve, 20 inches of vacuum at idle), new accelerator pump diaphragm, new gaskets, #61 jets (stock for this carb). 3-4 pumps of the accelerator when cold, automatic choke closes immediately as it should, she fires right up and will run for 30-45 seconds or so, but then will die if I don't feather the pedal almost like there's a vacuum leak. After some feathering, she warms up and will idle all day long. The tiniest bit of studder when giving it gas (accelerator pump is dialed in correctly), but it will rev. If I crack the throttle and hold it (maybe 1500-1800 RPM), it will either surge or will start to sputter and die if I don't feather the gas. It will drive, but surges when cruising. Float level is set correctly--when I remove the site window screw, just a tiny bit of gas trickles out when rocking the truck. Haven't been able to find a vacuum leak. Something still plugged up in the carb somewhere, perhaps? 2. The vacuum advance was shot. I installed a new one today (checked that it held vacuum before installing). When removing the distributor, though, I noticed that it was installed backwards, or at least the body was. The grease cup (which is no longer present, the port having been plugged) faces the block instead of being opposite the block. #1 plug wire on the cap is at roughly 2 o'clock instead of 5. When I pulled the distributor, I had the rotor pointing at #1 cylinder with the BB/UC in the site window on the bell housing. Not sure why it was installed this way, but up until the carb rebuild, I'd put roughly 2000 miles on the truck with virtually no drivability issues. I would like to pull the distributor back out and install in the correct orientation, but not 100% sure how to go about it. Is it as simple as just pulling it and rotating the body 180 degrees? Any help is greatly appreciated! Apologies for the novel, but wanted to include as much detail as possible. Thank you all in advance!!
You should (based on what you mentioned) take the carb apart, soak it in cleaner for a few days, then blow all the passages out. The spray can stuff works once in a while, but not a replacement for a proper soaking
I'm going to tear down the carb again and see what I can find. As for the distributor being installed backwards, how can I correct this? Is it as simple as just removing the distributor and rotating the distributor body 180°?
You say that you haven't been driving it much. How old is the gas in it? Most modern gasoline doesn't last long.
Yes it can be that simple, or not As you pull the dist up and out you can feel the body rotate a bit as it disengages the cam drive, observe the the orientation of the rotor compared to the oil pump drive tang on the bottom and compare the old dist with the new one, should be the same, maybe not, if not then with a flashlight look down the hole in the block and with along flat blade screw driver adjust the drive slot on the pump to more or less the position of the drive tang of the new dist. Drop in the dist, remember it will rotate a bit as it goes into the cam and hopefully the oil pump drive, if things didn’t end up engaged pull dist back up till it just disengages the cam and counter rotate the rotor one tooth of the cam and try again , if you’re not comfortable doing this many times you may want to have someone who is do it, it can become a bit of a circus trying to get things lined up and properly engaged, if you get the dist in and the rotor is not quite where you wanted, it’s not that big a deal just adjust the dist body so the number one plug is where the rotor is pointing ok guess the reading comprehension skills aren’t what they used to be, I see you just replaced the vac adv. on the old dist. Did you check the shaft runout on it?
Distributors are dumb. They don’t care about orientation as long as the rotor points to the correct spark plug wire. I’ve worked on hundred cars where the “correct” as you orientation was wrong. I loosened the distributor clamp pull it up and put the vacuum can where I wanted it rearranged the spark plug wire on the cap and pointed the rotor to #1. Most of the time I had the rocker cover off to set #1 firing correctly and the timing mark very close correct on the indicator. No big thing…
@HEATHEN - Forgot to mention that yes, I siphoned all the old gas out of the tank before rebuilding the carb. @Wanderlust Yes sir, just replaced the advance so had the distributor out. I did have to fiddle with it a bit to get it to seat properly when reinstalling (I made marks on the distributor body for where the rotor was lined up before and after removing). I did have to use a flat head screwdriver to rotate the oil pump drive just a bit and then it dropped in. I did not check shaft runout, though. @jimmy six That's kind of what I was thinking, but wasn't 100% sure and still learning! I appreciate it. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to respond. I'm going to pull the carb again and clean the piss out of it and see how it runs after that. Once I get that problem fixed, I may work on correcting the distributor orientation (or I may not since it runs, haha). I'll let everyone know the outcome. Thank you, again!!
I would lean towards ignition, as has been mentioned. The coil or condenser could be a problem. I've had a condenser drive me crazy many years ago. I had a coil in another that acted the same way. When accelerating under load it would sputter and almost die.
back in the day when a lot of old chevy cars were on the the road. The mechanic in the station I worked at the first thing he would have me check would be the intake to block bolts and the carb base bolts , the were notorious for being loose and having a vacuum leak. Tom
Finally, after a couple of months of weekend work, I've got the truck running like a sewing machine again! Unrelated to my original issue, I had to completely tear down the distributor (you can read about that ordeal in this thread should you so desire), but that gave me a good opportunity to clean and adjust the points (which were in excellent condition). got the distributor stabbed back in and set the timing to the BB (which is 5* BTDC for my engine). Still wasn't running well, but it would at least idle. Long story short, I advanced the timing two notches on the octane selector, set the carb mixture for the umpteenth time, adjusted the float level, and now it runs and drives like a top! It still doesn't like the automatic choke to be engaged when cold, but it just needs some adjustment. Plugs gapped at 0.040", pionts adjusted to 0.018" (probably a smidge less), timing is 9* BTDC, dwell is at 38*, idle is set to about 525 RPM, 20" of vacuum at idle. I appreciate everyone's input and suggestions to help me get this fixed!
glad you came up with a formula that works. those old stovebolts are pretty simple just arent many guys around any more that rember them
Glad you got it happy. That's a skill that has not been passed along, since it's touch, feel and experience and not a lot of stuff needs it nowadays. The choke will respond well too if it's not worn out. Just keep trying to go a bit richer and make sure the choke pull off is working too if equipped. https://www.carburetor-blog.com/knowledge-base/2300-adjustments/
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