alright here it goes again, any ideas are more then welcome. been driving the car about a month, finaly got it all tweaked out, its charging and everything. drive it to omaha and back leave for the fifties return to the car and go to fire it full of new p***ion. couple turns and it burbles....and dies. cant get it to start for ****. it just spins over and makes that "buh buh buh buh" noise like it wants to start. poped the hood and the coil is leaking oil, nice. so i threw a new one in. so now i know i have air, i know for a fact ive got gas and now with a brand new ignition switch, wire, balast and coil the ****er still wont start? lost on this one guys, last time it was the balast resistor but when it was that i could hold the key in a funny spot to by p*** the juice to the start up circut. got me scratching my head on this one as ive traced all i can think of. hmmm ideas? 53 ford stock everything v8 tim
thought i may have flooded it but i let it sit for another day or so and nothings changed. its got new plugs in it also.....something in the distrubutor? think ill pull the plugs tomorow and see if anything looks funny. seems odd to me to go from perfectly fine, to running for two seconds and now wont do anything but turn over : \ tim
are you running like a point dist. cause we had the same problem with my 59 belair and we just changed it to a hei dist. and she fired right up no probs...you might want to look into it and i bought one for like 120 at advanced auto and it dropped in with some finaleling and shes good ....and im running the original 283 sbc so there you go ...i hope i helped a littel but if not sorry...
try cleaning and gapping points? remove dist cap and pull coil wire from cap . turn on key and work points by hand. gettin a spark from coil wire?
ohh if you want to keep the points then you might want to check them making sure there gaped right...
check your spark. its either the fuel or spark- you can start by plugging in a spark plug and grounding it to the block to see if you have spark at the plug if you dont then you go to the distro- pull the cap, make sure the rotor and cap look good. inspect your points. take some 500 grit sand paper and fold it over, slide it between the points to clean the surfaces. if you dont have little ends on your points then you need to replace them. make sure they're opening and closing and that you have 'spark' or juice to the points... you can usually test this with a small screw driver- open them with the screw driver with the ignition on to see if it snaps some juice. IF NO SPARK at the points its your coil. inspect the wire that goes to the points and travels to the coil... its a old wire-- and may need to be replaced. you should have a 12 coil with an internal resistor or a plain one and you should be running an external resistor. if you get that figured out or you have spark... then look to the fuel system... start by taking off the fuel line to the carb and see if it pumps fuel out the hose when you turn it over. sometimes you can put a couple washers on top of the cam rod for the fuel pump to give it some more UMPH... if you have fuel there... and spark. look at the the carb. are you running a line filter? you may need one. Tuck
got the right coil and resitor its all new, fuel is for positive good and running two filters curently the wire is also new. i think i jacked up my points. ill tear it apart tomorow, ive got an extra set of points and a condensor in the trunk if it needs swaped out tim
yeah seems like everythings pointing to the guts of the dizzy a local hambers going to come down tomorow afternoon to help shed some flatty knowledge on me and give a hand updates when ive got em tim
Tuck covered just about everything, but if you get stuck somewhere and need to clean/gap the points, a book of paper matches comes in handy. The thickness of the book cover is about the right gap, and the striking surface strip can be used to clean the contacts. Flatman
Yeah, what flatman said. The rubbing block on the points can wear down and close up the gap, after a road trip. That will make it do the -buh buh buh- thing. overspray
i had the same problem one day after school in my 50 ford flat V8...jumped in the car, started it up and it ran real choppy, stalled and wouldnt start...i put the old rotor on it and it started right up...
i have a 53 ford that does the same thing, won't start. if i push it 10 feet it will fire right up....i was told that the starter is drawing to much , and not giving enough voltage to the coil. is this possible? i am still running 6 volt system, why , i don't know. cadillac dave
Pull a plug, hold it against the block, have somebody crank it. See the spark obviously jump or not. It could be that your ignition toasted your old coil failing, and won't run your new one.
well pulled the cap off and it looked like ***, so new points rotor and condensor, adjust the points and.................................not a damn thing its not getting juice, guess ill work backwards from it to threw that new wire, new balast and new ignition key tim
yeah i got some ideas i think i can get it fixed, a local guy came over to give me a hand and has got more ideas then i can think of so it shouldnt be an issue. wouldnt be surprised if it leads back to some of the previous owners "lovely" re wiring tim
though as ****ty as those points looked im curious as to how it will run now as i thought it ran just great on them
Well, to keep everyone up to date, I used the volt meter and got about 8 volts on the coil, (not running) this would be correct with a 12 volt battery going thru a external resistor. Like Tim said, the points and condenser must have been last changed in about 1956, corroded badly. When Tim cranked the engine, there is no spark at the points, this leads me to believe the wiring in the switch itself, as when starting, the voltage is going to the starter and not enough to the coil. The battery is just about dead, I've got it home here on the charger. But it's an old battery Tim, and the cranking amps on it are only 525 cold cranking amps. But I'll bet my pay check it will start tomorrow. First to hot wire the coil to the battery, to be sure it's not the coil, it will be getting a full jolt of 12 volts. If it does start, then that will lead me back to the key as to see how the power is wired to the switch. In my spare box that I had with me, I think I've got an internal resisted coil, so if need be, that one under the dash can be done away with, and run the 12 volt power to the coil I have. But on the other hand, if everything goes well tomorrow, you can do that at another time if you want. So true, Real hot rods with flatties have a tool box in the trunk, street rods have a can of polish!!!! HellRaiser
went out and swapd that solinoid out, should be good to go for tomorow morning. the key it self is brand new and it ran fine for at least a month so im not sure whats going on. wonder if two wires melted themselves together somewere in there........guess we'll find out. bought that batterie a year ago december so its not to old, it seemed to be charging just fine when it was running last week. had it charged up full and then drove it a good 6 or 7 hours with out as much as a stutter, hard start or dimmin headlight so im asuming trying to start it about 8 trillion times drained it preety good but i agree with Real hot rods with flatties have a tool box in the trunk, street rods have a can of polish!!!! but feel i must add " and a spare generator or two,waterpumps,extracarb, fuel line, enough fluids for a full change,extra fan blade and belts, plugs, and points........and another tool box" lol
Are you running 6 or 12 volts? If 6, make sure the battery cable is the proper gauge. The flathead in my sedan (with stock 6 volts) used to be hard to start when it was hot. Turned out I had a 12 volt cable which wasn't getting enough juice to start the car. Got the right cable from Roy Nasewics and it started fine after that.
its 12 and has new cables, when it gets spark to the plugs it starts like its been waiting all day for you to turn the key tim
With all those parts you have in the trunk, no wonder it squats down in the back like a real cruizer should!!!!!!
I heard you say you have spark at the points. Does that mean the points are sparking, or something like the coil wire sparks but not the plug wire?
Had power to the + side of the coil, 8 volts, car not running. but when he hit the starter, the power wend dead, no spark at the points, but the battery was so far down it's too hard to get a true reading. I've got it on the charger now, we're going to have at it again in the morning
yeah me and rusty cope 215 ran into the same problem with my car when we first got it to his house and we tried everything but no go so we finnallywent ouot and biught a hei dist. yeah i know points is better lol but the hei dropped in and blam with in a couple of hours of feul working she started right up so if you cand get anything with the pints you might want to look into a hei ...
looks like everythings working now with a charged batterie, still wont start looks like a shorted out a wire that goes to the ignition switch. gona go grab some heat shrink,wire, and trace them tim
No, his wiring to the starter is shorting out the wire to the coil, when he hit the starter, it by p***ed the coil wire, ????? but with the engine off, there was power to the coil. but the culprit is a couple of wires under his dash at the ign switch are fused together. This old man can't crawl upside down and backwards anymore, so I'll let Tim do the dirty work, RIGHT Tim????
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