#1--Finally got the poncho running again today so I drove it home since it's super nice out, I still have some tweaking to do, but something that bothering me is this rattling sound that almost sounds like it's inside the car. It doesn't do it idling or cruising along, it only does it when your having to pull up a hill or any other time you have to put a little more foot into it than normal. Since i changed carbs the linkage and stuff is different so could this have anything to do with the tranny kickdown? I'm not sure if the way i have it setup right now is working properly or not (that's one of the tweaks taht has to be addressed). #2--Had my speedo rebuilt, but after sticking it in there, it only goes up to 30 and work go any higher, the first time it stayed there and didn't go back to 0 until i took the cable loose again. What the hell could that be that i could fix without having to send it back to the speedo shop? I know there was one more thing, but I can't think of it right now....any help with be GREATLY appreciated.
Can't help you on the rarrleing, don't know about your nes setup, and would probably have to see it anyway. Is your timming too fast? But you might take a look at your speedo cable and make sure it doesn't have a kink in it, and that it is running as straight as possible into the speedo. There that should get the juices flowing.
we set the timing to pertyt much the only place the car would keep goign once you put it in gear, not sure of exact location we just did it by ear. The car did the same thing when i first got it, but it only did it a little when you first started pulling up a hill, other than that it never made a peep. We had to play with the timing and idle it a little high to get it to stay going when ya shift into gear. I've pulled the cable out a couple of times just cos i thought it might nor be seating right or binding or something, but it slides in it out of the housing with no tourbles, I"ll check the route of the housing though just to make sure it's not wrapped aroudn things for no good reason.
Sounds like your poncho is pinging. Make sure the timing is right on. You probably have it too advanced.. or your vacuum advance is hooked up to constant vacuum. Undo the cable at the trans and fit the end of the cable into the end of a drill give it slow spin. If the needle jumps around, its binding somewhere. see if theres any grease on the cable, if not use WHITE grease. Pull the guts out of the cable and slime it up good. I would think the speedo shop would have tested the unit before it went out the door..
hmm...the vacuum advance might be on constant vacuum, didn't know there was different ones...what part on the carb would be constant and which ones not? It's plugged into the base near where the power brake vacuum line goes. I'll try that speedo thing when i get back to the shop tonight. I"d hate to hav eto call and yell at speedo shop for half-assing my shit. do i turn the distibutor clockwise or counter to retard the timing?
If you've got to advance the devil out of it to get it to run then you probably have a vacumm leak. I would get a can of WD40 and spray it, all around the carb at idle aand see if it revs up any place. If it does bingo. Vac leak, fix that, get your timming right and then give it another test run.
Once you determine whether or not it is a vacuum leak, you should take out your distributor and move it one or two teeth toward the direction that would retard it a little. OldCarPilot and I almost had nervous breakdowns on his '57 Chevy trying to figure out why the car would stall when we'd put it in gear. We did the same stuff, turn up the idle, mess with the mixture. We set the total timing with his light. We sprayed and looked for bubbles. Nothing made it any better. We plugged all the vacuum holes, one at a time, and put it in gear, to see if it was a hose. Nope. We messed with power valves and jets. Nope. We changed the carb gasket, just in case. Nope. After a full week of getting really pissed off and frustrated, I came back to Phoenix and he removed and reinstalled the intake manifold. Nope. Then he took out the dizzy and moved it one or two teeth over. Problem solved. He said the fucker really screams now.
i had the exact same problem. When i put it in any gear it would just stall out. It wound up being the carb, which I switched out for a rebuilt unit. And now it idles good, and solved my stalling out problem.
well it doesn't stall out anymore, when you put on the brakes and get going slow it bogs down some, but never actually cuts off. Once you come to a stop it picks back up. If i get that and the pinging stopped I"ll be golden.
Is this a SBC? For some reason, when I was setting up mine a couple of years ago, I would ALWAYS get this new problem you are describing, it threatens to stall, but doesn't. I tried power valves, messing with the timing, jet changes, float adjustment, blah blah.... A guy that my cousin is dating rebuilds Holleys for race applications. I mentioned it to him and he told me to plug the vacuum advance and only use the mechanical advance. I tried this and it never happened again.
If the vac line is plugged into the manifold like the power brake line is thats your problem. The vac advance line should on the carb near the base. Set your timing with the vacumm advance disconnected, but make sure the open port on the carb is blocked off, you dont want a massive vac leak. Check a Motor manual for the correct timing at idle and set it with a timing light. then connect up the vac to the distributor, the idle shouldn't vary when u first hook it up to the vac line at an idle. Then set your mixture screws to give ya the fastest engine speed at an idle, then set the idle speed. If after all that it SHOULD run and idle ok. If the engine compression is too high (any thing over about 9-1 on todays gas) you will never get rid of the ping unless you run super high test. Lets us know how it goes. Oh thought of one more thing, if the cylinders are all carboned up, that will lead to detonation also.
If the cylinders are all carboned up, get some stuff at your Dodge dealer called Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner, it's about $6 per can. Get about 2-4 cans for a V8. Spray one or two full cans into the spark plug holes evenly. Let it sit for a few hours and shop vac the spark plug holes with little hoses duct taped to the shop vac, (preferably clear- like aquarium hoses- so you can watch the shit that comes out). When you are satisfied that the cylinders don't have pools of fluid, turn the motor over with the coil wire off for a few seconds. Run it for a couple of mins and change the oil. The combustion chambers will be spotless!
didn't get around to messing with the engine stuff tonight, did yank out the speedo though and I figured out what the problem was. Of course it was something RETARDED the speedo shop did, the new needle they put in s about 1/4 inch to long, and where it hit the housing was right about 30 mph, I took car of it, now i just gotta get all the instrument cluster shit straightened out and dial the motor in and I'm basically set. I'll post an update when I mess with the engine more. Thanks guys. oh yeah, i haven't been able to set tthe timing with a timing light cos i don't know how the hell I'm supposed to read the marks, the only thing on the pully is kinda like this (ll ll), it's two lines and a gap, then two more lines. Anyone know what the hell these mark? I know th emotor is supposed to be advances 6 degrees but we never figured out how to read the pulley thats why we just did it by ear.
IF this is a '60 Pontiac engine in your 60 Pontiac you have lised in your profile then the idle should be between 480-500 RPM. if it's too high, the tranny will hang up down shifting from 2nd to 1st and lug the engine down. You NEED to use a tach on it to set that, it's only a 20rpm range. you NEED to set your dwell with a dwell meter. I bought a cheap plastic case dwell/tach for around $12 and have been using it for years. You NEED to use a timing light. to see what is up since "timing it by ear" obviously isn't working. The vacuum advance is supposed to be disconnected and the source plugged so you don't have a vacuum leak while setting the timing. since pulling it may drop your rpm you may have to bump it up enough to stay running while setting the timing, but after plugging the vacuum advance in drop it back down. if it makes a difference you should probably set the idle speed in drive (automatic) with the Parking brake set of course. just dont forget and goose the gas like that or you'll send it thru the back wall of the garage! On the marks, one mark is gonna be longer or notched deeper and that's gonna be TDC. 6º is gonna be the mark about a centmeter to 1/2 and inch passed it. Hope this gets ya somewhere... (If it's not the Pontiac engine then you should have said so...)
ah that helps out quite a bit on the timing, i guess the four lines i was seeing was just the outline of two lines? ok i just confused the hell out of myself. My gas gauge took a shit today so now I've gotta replace a practicly new gauge....everytime something goes right, 3 more things go wrong....Thanks for the help guys.
update. Got the speedo worked out and put another fuel gauge in that works better than the old one. moved the hose for the vacuum advance so it wouldn't get constant vacuum and now it's runs WAY better than it did. I was able to get the idle down quite a bit, now all i need to do is adjust the timing and points a bit, fix the leak in the gas tank and then I can finish worrying about how purdy it is. I'd be pulling my hair out still if it weren't for you guys. Thanks.-J
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