Projects Cutting my Hotrod Teeth (57 Chevy Budget build/revival)

Dang, I think I have a 2bbl for a factory intake I would have soaked and put a kit in it for you and sent it out to try.
I’ve a few small Holley 4bbls, but both need kits and not sure they would bolt to your intake.

 

Yup, still no start. I just thought it might be a clue that the “run” position causes it to crank slow. That would suggest a drop in voltage or a short I would think?

 

I don’t think it’s a fuel issue anyway. If i pull the throttle, i see fuel squirt, and then the primaries open.

 

HAHAH I think I found it! I was fiddling with my wires a bit (because of the weak cranking) and the ballast resistor just crumbled into pieces. I guess that would explain my “voltage drop” theory. Sometimes I’m more on the money that expected

 

Unfortunately that’s a rap on the car this weekend. Local auto parts store doesn’t have the resistor in stock. I’ll order it and hopefully have it next weekend. Today wasn’t entirely a waste. I got my valves adjusted the right way, and cleaned up my spark plug wiring situation. Now I have the wires running back by the bellhousing and under the manifolds. It always bothered me the old ones were too short to run that way.

 

Unfortunately a no-go. Maybe the resistor was one of multiple problems…

 

And now no spark at the plugs according to the plug tester light. I’m about fed up with it today, I’ll try again next weekend.

 

Well, if wired properly, “start” bypasses the ballast and goes straight to the coil. For full voltage. When the engine start and you go to the “run” position, the voltage goes through the ballast.

 

So it sounds like it was a coincidence that my resistor broke, and not the cause of the starting issue?

 

Get 2 resistors, 1 for the firewall and 1 for the glovebox

 

Resistors: ordered
Battery: returned. They tried to get me to buy a $240 battery when I took this one in so I said no thanks, just give me my money back. I'll go elsewhere. Lesson learnt about parts-store batteries!
Guy behind the counter seemed shocked when I told him this was a 283 draining the charge in a matter of minutes. No shit sherlock, it's an almost 2 year old battery. My car is not the problem.

 

Well, no way I'd accept a nearly 2 year old battery if I was buying it new off the shelf and paying full price for it. So I think you were absolutely correct to bring that back. I'm also curious to know what your issue is, although I'm not much help in figuring it out.

 

A few years ago I bought a "new" battery from the tractor store. After nothing but problems for a month I pulled it out and on the side it had a return/faulty sticker on it! They swapped it no charge thankfully.

 

Alright fellas this is really getting the best of me. I just don’t know what else to try. I installed the new ballast resistor, and tested while cranking. I get 12.5v at the bottom and about 9 at the top.

Okay, resistor seems good.

Next, I checked the spark at the plugs. I see a spark. I’ll also share a video of what could be a weak spark? Really not sure, as it’s a white/yellow spark, not blue.

So then I checked that I was actually getting fuel. I definitely am. I can see the fuel squirt into the primaries when i pull the throttle, and if i pull a little further, the butterfly opens and the fuel falls into the intake. I also took a spark plug out after cranking for a bit and it was wet and smelled of fuel.

Okay, so fuel is not an issue.

Next I decided to switch out the new coil I put in last weekend with the one I was using when it was running. Still no change.

The frustrating part is, I can hear it *almost* catch if i mess with the distributor rotation and crank it for 10 seconds or so, but it doesn’t actually start.

WTF could it possibly be at this point? Timing? Could I be 180 out? I just don’t get it! I’m bashing my head here and trying to resist mothballing the car again because this isn’t how I want to spend weekend after weekend…

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/WpZpDYvRT8k?si=4yxcyJcwe6ZIG5Lf

https://youtube.com/shorts/lONVn35dfTU?si=eNistiJAwpn8PWyD

 

Nevermind, it started up!

 

Sorry, missed this.
Okay, when key is in “start” the resistor is bypassed. Once started you let the key back to “run” and the voltage is dropped through the resistor.

 

And what did you do?

oh yes “fuck yeah”

 

I think my timing was/is just totally out of wack. I have a hell of a time getting it started now but at least it’s something. A few weeks ago when I initially got it to run again without setting the points gap, I had the distributor turned counter clockwise about as far as it would go. The vacuum advance pot was actually almost touching the intake. Now, with the dwell/gap set correctly (and the dizzy taken in and out) it’s turned clockwise significantly more, and it’s turned so far that I assumed it wouldn’t run in that position, but I guess I’m just a few teeth advance from where I was, and I needed to retard it significantly more than before to get it to run (if I’m understanding this correctly). Next time I’m working on it I’ll have read up on timing and hopefully dial that in better. I was pretty happy with the dwell reading of 29-30. My .018 feeler gauge points gap was almost dead on. I’ve got a timing light so it’s just a matter of figuring it all out.

It’s also sounding a lot better and I think it’s because I ran the pcv hose to the back of the carb. I would assume having it open would cause a massive vacuum leak.

I’m still not 100% confident the distributor is going to be reliable, but I have wire and I have the tools to take it apart, so if I do decide to rewire it, it’s doable in an afternoon. There’s not much I haven’t touched or replaced in the ignition circuit now. Actually, the only “old” part is the rotor.

Another thing, the alternator is not charging the battery, at least not at idle. I read online that one wire alternators will do that. Is it true if I switch to a more standard 3 wire, it will charge at idle? I don’t want to keep draining the battery over and over, and this is quite a bit away from going down the road obviously.

 

I’ve converted alternators to one wire. Had to run a wire to a bulb for resistance. When started the bulb would light up. Once the engine was warmed up, rev it up to 1500 or so, it would charge and the light would go out.
May just look to see if your alternator needs to be at some RPM to be excited to charge.

 

So right now, it’s wired to the gen light on the dash. It lights up when I start the engine, but then goes off while it idles. Th problem is that the battery ends up draining, so if it is charging, it’s not enough to keep it topped up. I don’t think I have a drain anywhere since there’s literally nothing connected besides the bare essentials. Maybe I’ll try to just let it idle for 10 minutes or so next time and watch the battery with a multimeter throughout that time. I did check the hot terminal of the alternator once before and I recall it being somewhere around 15-16v, so I assumed it was charging the battery.

 

What's the alternator from? My go to on alternator choices is to order one for a 76 Chevy Vega.vnot technically one wire but it is self exciting. And super easy to wire. It's what I have on my 53 bel air

 

Disconnect the negative battery lead. Put your meter on the MA scale, put one meter lead on the battery post, the other to the cable. I forget what allowed current draw is, but Google is your friend.
Quick and easy check to find out if something is drawing current with the key off.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Truth be told, this alternator may or may not even be functional. It was on the engine when I bought it, but I bought it already pulled, so never checked it with my own eyes when it was in the truck it was pulled from though I did see it running.

I’m just wanting to check if it’s working before spending $50 on another alternator if I don’t need to.

 

I can take a pic of the wiring on my alternator in a bit to show how simple it is in case yours needs replaced