My guess is a dead battery or alternator not charging/hooked up. I know that sounds gay but a lack of amps does funny things sometimes.
I'd really like to know what the problem was. It sounds like your solution might be some good, helpful information for we HAMBers, but I'm not crazy about this "20 questions" malarky. I'd love to have the info, but I really don't have the time or the patience to keep checking this thread until someone guesses the right answer. Make with the info already!
I had this same problem for a while. The tachometer would short out the ignition if the rpms dropped when you put it in gear. Unplugged the tach and threw it away. It looked like condensation in the cup was hitting the rotating part of the indicator.
I figgur'd it out.. The spark plug belts were too loose. This thread will give you a rash, avoid it any further...
Wow, the overnight crowd got in the game. My humblest apologies to those who are patiently awaiting the answer....I was sleeping. Bellm technically got the right answer but honorable mention to the lifter suggestions. We got the car as a pile of parts from an old guy who had been collecting for about 30 years. The engine was basically built and he mentioned that it had a fresh cam. He neglected to mention that it was a 30 year old, fresh, SOLID LIFTER cam. We ***uming otherwise, dropped in a fresh set of lifters (hydraulic) and could manage to get the car running but under a load the lifters were failing and causing the whole thing to go sideways. Moral of the story, don't mix solid lifter cam with hydraulic lifters. All the lit. speculates that bad things will happen, but doesn't describe the symptoms. Now we know what it looks and sounds like. We did need to change the spark plug belts, get the neighbors cat off the fan belt, and pull all the old rags out of the intake too. True
I thought it was just Satan personally....but I did really enjoy the "Ground cable made from plastic lanyard you made at summer camp in 1974?" idea. The whole solid/hydraulic lifter/cam thing-good advice : )
The suggestion "Neighbor's cat wrapped around fan belt?" made me laugh soo hard I shot my drink out my nose!
OK, my first shot without reading any of the previous posts (honest!): Had vacuum advance connected to wrong port on carb? I had this problem with my '67 Nova recently when I installed new Edelbrock intake and carb. These AFB look-alike carbs have two vacuum ports (my old one just had one) and one of them is "ported" the other not - don't know which is which but the 283 would bog like crazy with wrong port connected to dist. vacuum advance! Run's like a bear when you switch dist. adv. vacuum to right port - found it by trial-and-error, took about an hour I guess... Now I'll read the rest of the posts and see if I am right or not!
I just saw this and a few things were left out....First...We got a box with parts for the motor that consisted of some old valve springs, valves, and hydraulic lifters with the motor..so naturaly I figured he put in a hydraulic cam..None of the parts were usable, so bought new ones..I also talked to everyone I knew that considered himself a sbc guru...still no luck..I have also built several sbc's with no issues..Then layin in bed one night after thrashing on the motor for 6 hours..feeling beaten....I had a vision...This old guy building his dream car..collecting parts. I see him grab a new M/T solid lifter cam off a shelf...Bingo, that was it....Yanked the cam again and ran the numbers... M/T solid lifter 30/30 cam...and That's the whole story..EVILT
"Moral of the story, don't mix solid lifter cam with hydraulic lifters. All the lit. speculates that bad things will happen, but doesn't describe the symptoms. Now we know what it looks and sounds like." Man if I'd have read this sooner that would have been my first guess. Ain't cars fun?
That was also my guess, due to the thread ***le. But I woulda checked a half million other things (as you did) before yanking the cam...
The Jalopy Journal
