Frustration has set in--- Last Saturday evening my '50 Dodge with original distributor, dual carbs and split manifold started acting up. I fiddled with it Sunday, pulled the lids off the carbs, messed with the needles, changed the points, cleaned the plugs, tried to tighten the plug terminals on the wires. Something I did helped, but it still had a big "cutting out" spot in acceleration, not too far off idle. It would clear out and then continue accelerating. I ***umed it was distributor related, so this afternoon I swapped in another distributor that already had new points, condenser, cap and rotor. Now I have a completely different problem. The car is hard starting, but idles ok. Off of idle as it climbs in rpm it begins to cut out, and does not quit. shift gears, bring the rpm down, it goes smooth 'til it hit that spot and then cuts out. What am I doing wrong? I set the point gap per the book, .020", checked it running with the dwell meter, it's 38 degrees, dead on the book spec. I am going to change the plug wires, mostly because the originals are just trash, but I'm afraid this is not going to solve the problem. Any suggestions?
actually, changing the plug wires is the first thing i would do, i've had the same prob. a few times, and plug wires have always been to blame... as far as hard starting, sounds like you could have ended up w/ a lil' too much advance when you changed the distributor... thats where i'd start.
Ok, l just finished installing the new plug wires, no change in symptoms. As far as timing goes, when I put the dist. in I set the timing close to the factory spec-- at top center. I live at 6000 feet, so I added about 2 degrees, figured that was good. I'm leaning toward a point gap issue, too much or too little, but don't know which way to go. I'm hoping someone here has some insight/experience with this type of issue.
I try changing the condenser again. I've had similar problems and tried everything you did, and then the second or third condenser fixes the problem. I'd heard so many people say it but really this is one of the things they don't make like they used to.
went back out, closed the point gap a little, the thing fired right up, but still cut out up a little higher. Changed condensers with one I had here, it wouldn't run at all! went and bought a fresh one, stuck it in, back to the same thing. Fires right up, but cuts out at higher rpm.
You might try setting your timing with a va*** guage, just move your distributor to the max on va***,for me it works better then a timing light.
***uming the plugs are coloring ok - I would check the COIL. I had a weak condenser smoke my coil - symptom - fired right up wouldn't rev for ****. Changed coil and I thought I was golden - but I still had that **** condenser - you might have done the opposite as me only to find the same ultimate issue. What's the SPARK look like ??? A nice BLUE would be good. Hard starting can be a result of a WEAK spark. Darn electrons!!!!
I'm gonna try the coil tomorrow, in the mean time I think I've discovered another issue, That is, I hooked the vacuum gauge to the line coming off the front carb, running to the vacuum advance on the distributor. Fired up the car (still no problem firing up now) and--- no vacuum at idle! rev it up, less than 5" at the rpm where the engine starts cutting out. I'm going to try taking the vacuum off the carb, use a manifold vacuum port instead, see where that gets me. I tried moving the timing around a little, no effect on the vacuum gauge, unsure at this point if it raised the rpm where the stumble comes in or not.
The va*** gauge needs to be hooked up below the throttle body, on the manifold. You have to make sure your idle is correct, so you are doing several things at once, setting your timing and adjusting your idle speed at the same time. It does'nt take to much effort but can be a pain sometimes, just keep at it til your idle is as near as you can get it with the greatest amount of va***. I used a timing light all my life until I was working on my old F100 with it original 6 banger, which did not have anywhere near the compression it should have had, but once I did this I got descent performance and gas mileage. Just keep plugging away, it'll happen.
I suspect the original distributor has a different timing issue: I think there's slop in the pivot that moves when the vac advance works. Give it a diagnostic test by just plugging the vac hookup--if stumble goes, you need to takeitapart and figure out how to eliminate the slop.
update --- I couldn't seem to get anywhere with the distributor that I "rebuilt" and swapped into the car, so I am going to switch back to the distributor that came out. It ran better than the one I put in. I bought points, condenser, cap and rotor for it, dicovered that the vacuum advance is no good (wonder if this was the problem all along?) I'm going to swap to a functioning vacuum advance, and test it on a distributor machine tomorrow ( I found the book that goes with the machine, now I can figure out how to run the damn thing) If all tests well on the machine I'll swap it back in. Along with the new plugs and plug wires, new coil feed and distributor feed wires,and a new vacuum port for a gauge, I should be able to get the thing going decent again, at least as good as it was before I started. If all this goes, and the car still has a stumble in it, I'll look toward carburetion. I have a pair of carb bases being bushed at the throttle shafts as we speak.
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