HELP! car died and wont start again

heres the deal. a week or so back i ran out of gas and afterwards my car started running funny (wouldn't idle but would be fine with a little gas and ran fine at higher speeds). i figured something got past the filter and stopped up the carb, so i took it off, soaked it and sprayed it with berryman's carb cleaner because i dont have access to compressed air. it ran fine for a week or so. two days ago i noticed a stumble every three seconds or so(didnt know if its related but giving the greater minds all the info). this morning it ran but with the stumble, started right up. i let it warm up for a couple minutes, put it in drive and have no power no matter the amount of gas i give it. finally it gives up about 30 yards from my parking spot and wont start. this is my only means of transportation and i need it back on the road asap. anyone have ideas before i go and start messing with stuff?

 

take the aircleaner off, stroke the throttle, see if gas sprays the butterflys, if not check the carb and fuel filter for crap, maybe the pump gave up also. Just my guess

 

check your gas tank as well. May be corrupted w/ old shit, rust, etc.

-scott noteboom

 

what's the year, make, motor?
daye

 

The only 2 things it could be is fuel or ignition

 

This is exactly what i would do, then check the tank to see if it picked up some crap from the tank, but start at the carb and trace backerds

 

May be time for a rebuild kit and some fresh filter(s). Sounds like its starving for fuel.

 

i've got one of those clear filters and its full of fuel, and has a new filter in it. i'll go mess with the throttle now. thanks for the input

 

Sounds very familiar.in my case it was sticking carburettor float.It works then when your 4 light years from civilisation,you hear it misfiring then stop.Nightmare.

 

He's saying it runs OK with a little throttle, so it may still be shooting gas when he pumps it. Sounds like idle circuit is what is blocked. Rebuild and you MUST use compressed air.

 

have you checked your pump delivery? maby some crap got in there and now the pump has lost volume. if it ran out all the crap that collects in the bottom of the tank would have gotten into the system. also are you sure it's all gas in the filter? maby some water got in the tank and got sucked up into the system when the level dropped. you could try draining the filter the tank and the lines, and put in some fresh gas, wouldn't hurt to try

 

thanks guys, its a stock 390 with a rebuilt 2bbl carb(from o'reilly's). guy said he put it on right before he sold it but that was a year ago. one side sprays good but the other seems kinda clogged. i guess the carb is coming off again. what i dont unerstand is even with some throttle it wont start, could it be a combo of fuel and ignition?...i guess i should take one thing at a time though. thanks again for the input.

 

I agree, except he said it totally died now. I think everybody is a little right, time for a rebuild!

 

I had a very similar problem with my Stude a while back.A fellow suggested this and it worked!If you can get it fired up again,take off the air cleaner first.Work the throttle from under the hood.Rev it to around 3 grand,then cover the carb with your hand to choke it.Remove your hand just before it dies.I'm guessin the engine vaccuum dislodged what ever was blocking up the carb,cause after that I never had a problem.I know,it sounded odd to me too,but it worked.

 

This might be out there, but I had same symptoms with a rebuilt carb fresh from a chain store that was missing a ball check. Do you have a diagram, any chance anything fell out when you cleaned it?

 

if its a 2 barrel pull the top off and take a peek,my ex old lady had a pinto that was notorious for running out of gas, hard to believe at .75 a gallon and it was always full of shit from the tank. kept carb gaskets,silicone and timing belt in that car always.

 

the only thing is that it ran a 300 plus mile trip this week (after the first time i took it off) with no probs, has a new filter that is still clean but none the less it will come off. thanks again guys

 

do the quick and easy rag trick!
with the motor running and a clean rag move the throttle to wide open and stick the rag over the carb, chokeing the motor and just before it dies remove the rag. What your trying to do is create an intence vacuum to suck any shit thought the carb. Its a long shot ,but its cheap. daye

 

just an update. cleaned out the carb again with no luck so i moved on to the electrical side of it. had a spare coil and condenser so i threw those on and nothing still. i bought a new cap, rotor, points and plugs and all is well. the thing now is that under acceleration im getting some black smoke. this is fuel right? and if so how should i go about fixing it?

 

Do you have the points set right?

 

Black smoke is running rich.

The run out of gas thing sounds like a clogged fuel filter , if thats been changed disconnect the fuel line to the carb and spin it over , if it punps gass then the pump is working. You did the tune up parts so now you have to dial in the fuel issue. Take that fuel filter off and blow through it , if ya can it might not be clogged , if ya cant then....

Good luck.

 

i think so. acording to the manual is supposed to be .016 i got it as close as i could. it stumbles a little right off of idle then i only get black smoke when on the gas. would too much or too little point gap do this?

 

fuel filter is new. idle mix screws wont cause this under acceleration will they?

 

Black smoke is too much fuel, do the rev it up and rag trick like the others have said sounds like it's dumping fuel

 

Spraying a carb with berrymans != rebuilding it.

It looks like it was just coincidence and that you really had an ignition problem, but I wouldn't completely rule out a intermittent carb problem yet.

 

You checked the jets in the carb right?

 

I had that happen to me in my 27 T-coupe with a small black Chevy.Topped up the tank at the gas station , drove to a party, got back a few hrs later and it would not start. I tried everything. Had it towed to my shop.....175 bucks later, and pumped 3 gallons of water out of the tank. Fresh gas and it fired up no problem...Maybe bad gas???/ Was everything good before the fill-up?? TBJ

 

thanks guys. i'll try the rag trick now.

 

I probably catch hell for this, but everything I owed with points now has a petronix electronic conversion, wicked easy to install, and no issues, just an idea to stop erractic timing and fouled plugs.

 

really run out of gas or slip a couple cogs on the timing chain..