BoldUlysses

Well, the ship has already sailed. 😞 I put them up on eBay last night for $95, and.... they sold in about 10 minutes, lol. So I'm pretty sure I underpriced them. Oh well.

Found a pair of NOS red seat cushions in my stash that I don't need anymore. I think my dad bought these in the early '90s and they've just stayed with the car ever since. What do you guys think is a fair price?

Alrighty. After a ton of help and great advice by other forum members (read the discussion here), I've got it running pretty well. The culprits turned out to be: Blockage in the fuel tank and/or the lines Marginal fuel pump Mis-set timing Float bowls set incorrectly (fixed above) Maladjusted carbs (much too lean) I put the car back up on dollies and rolled it back into its spot so I can get my daily driver back in the garage: (a garage-mahal it ain't, but it works) In the weeks to come, I'll be dropping the fuel tank for inspection & cleaning, respraying the airbox and doing some exhaust work (there's a small leak between the manifold & downpipes).

Things are looking up. Here's a driving clip from earlier: 240915-Zdriving1.m4v Work done: TIming to 5° BTDC @ 750 rpm. Rechecked cam sprocket mark (this is at TDC): Cleaned spark plugs. Here's before: Mixture nuts still set ~5 turns down. Still running off the auxiliary tank. I hooked up the main tank just to see if there was a difference, and sure enough, fuel pressure dropped and the float bowl on the rear carb ran dry. Definitely think there's an obstruction in the lines or the tank. Going to drop it and have it re-cleaned. I drove it to the gas station (3 miles one way) and back and it only backfired once under heavy load. It felt REALLY good to have been able to get it out of the neighborhood. So yes, the exhaust is pretty sooty. Is this typical? 240915-exhaustmist.m4v

The timing readings are always taken with the vacuum advance line disconnected and the port in the front carb capped off. 750 rpm. I was asking if there was something internally different (e.g. different weights/dashpot = different advance curve) about the Euro distributor that meant that setting a US-spec one—which I assume I have—to 17° (the non-emissions-controlled spec) would result in poor running once the car was under load and the advance started to kick in. The groove picture above is taken with the engine at TDC, timing pointer aligned with the bottom mark on the front pulley when viewed from the fuel pump side of the engine. We established earlier in the thread that my front pulley is OK and not separated, so I'm going to trust that its TDC mark is accurate (also confirmed by the position of the #1 piston). The plan at this point: Recheck the cam sprocket Clean the spark plugs Back the timing down to 5° and see if I can lean out the carbs and still get it to behave.

The identification on the distributor reads D412-89.

5 turns down. Yes a major effort of the thread has been to ensure everything in the engine is in sync. I verified that TDC on the #1 cylinder matches the bottom mark on the front pulley, like it should. The distributor drive tang is correct. The distributor is timed to 17° because all the emissions controls have been removed from the engine. Is there something internal about the distributor for emissions-controlled cars (weights, dashpot, etc)? I'm still unclear as to how to ensure the cam sprocket is on the correct tooth. Here's the V-and-mark situation:

Well. This helped. A lot, actually. 1-2 turns down on each carb, and the car was...actually driveable. Backed them up again a turn, and the backfiring returned. Turned them down again, and I was able to cruise around the neighborhood with only slight, occasional missing from the engine (fouled plugs maybe?). Now, there is a fuel rich black mist coming from the tailpipe, which I don't like, but all the emissions controls have been removed, so maybe that's to be expected?

OK report after the points reinstallation: No change. I guess maybe it runs a little better. I dunno. It runs alright on initial startup, but as the engine warms up, it gradually devolves to this: (speedometer is currently disconnected) Started off in 2nd gear and slipped the clutch to get it moving. It idles fine, but bucks and backfires at anything over a light load. Undriveable. Drawing fuel from the auxiliary tank (no filter) in front of the rad support through a known-good pump. 3-5 psi idle. 17° BTDC @ 750 rpm. Float bowls lids nice and snug. Carbs sync'd with Uni-Syn, ~2.5 turns down on the screws. Float bowls wet-set to 21mm front, 19mm rear. I capped off the PCV & brake booster ports on the balance tube just in case there was a vacuum leak. No change. Misted carb cleaner around the carbs & intake. No change. I'm totally stumped, guys. Really wanted to take it to Cars & Coffee on Sunday, but I guess that's not happening.

You can orient the little metal tab whichever way you want; just loosen the screw & rotate it 90°. It may have originally been oriented up when I had the points on before; I don't remember. To the side just kind of made sense to me this time around, given the direction the ignition wire comes from.

I thought about securing the left end of the wire to the side you have it, but I was a little concerned with the wire being pulled taut when the timing is advanced. Electrically it doesn't make a difference since they both connect to the same big plate.

^Thanks for that. You'd be surprised at how hard it is to find a pic of a stock distributor's wiring online.

Awesome, thanks. I mainly wanted to make sure I had hooked the condenser up correctly. Dielectric grease OK for the cam?

Can you guys check my work here? Or take a pic of your stock distributor setup (the condenser side)? It's been a couple years since I had the points on and I forgot the exact wiring. Dwell set to .020. The condenser itself is secured to the screw on the dist. body BELOW the plastic piece.

Yes but it misses & sputters above 1.5K. It'll sustain that rpm, but it's not happy about it. Lots of missing at idle. Also discovered I have a nice exhaust leak where manifold meets the downpipes. That would explain 1) why it's so loud and 2) why the left side strut tower is looking kind of sooty.

Pulling my hair out, guys. About ready to put this stupid thing back up on dollies, push it to the back of the garage and let it sit for another 2 years while I work on something that makes sense. 😠 So the car doesn't threaten to die anymore. But it runs like total garbage, stuttering & bucking at anything over a VERY light load. It's still basically undriveable. Remarks, in no particular order: I verified the crank pulley was properly indexed to TDC. As mentioned above, I put the previous fuel pump back on. Fuel is being drawn from the auxiliary tank I rigged up in front of the radiator support. ~3-5 psi at idle. Carb float bowls are set to 21mm front, 19mm rear. 2.5 turns down on the knobs, and then I tune it from there with my Uni-Syn & flathead screwdriver. I'm fixated on the thought that the car used to run right, so I've been systematically undoing everything I've done over the past couple years. I moved the oil pump gear back 1 tooth to where it was before. The timing bottoms out at ~20° BTDC (the top mark on the pulley) with the distributor (and the extra set screw on the bottom) turned all the way, but I drove it literally thousands of miles pre-restoration with the oil pump gear in this location, so I'm resetting it. Next up: Ripping off the Pertronix kit and putting the points back on. Will report back.

You may be right. I did a timing chain stretch adjustment a while back and may have messed up the cam timing. I'll check that too. Thanks. I had a timing chain holding tool, but I lost it over the years. I think I have a screwdriver that will work per the ZTherapy method.

Yeah based on the pics you found, I think my damper is OK. I've been using the bolt loosely threaded onto the nose of the crank to turn the engine clockwise only, not the cam sprocket. I found my old rinky-dink fuel pump; going to put that on and see if it makes a difference with the fuel pressure issue. I didn't replace that pump with my rebuilt OEM one because it broke, but because I like the look of the OEM one more. So the pump above is still functional. So, to recap, I'm chasing two issues: Car dies after 15-20 minutes and won't start Very poor running (hunting idle, backfiring under light load, etc) The car ran like garbage when I installed the auxiliary tank over the weekend, but it didn't actually die on me, even after running for 20+ minutes. So that means either 1) I've got a restriction in the fuel delivery or 2) the fuel pump output is marginal. Maybe both. Going to try to eliminate 2) by installing the old pump and see if it runs better.

Here's the face. A pic of the back of it can be seen earlier in the thread. 95% sure it's original. The A/C (front-most) pulley came off easily when I removed the crank bolt. The harmonic damper itself has two belt grooves (middle one for air pump and rear one for WP & alternator) and I don't see an obvious parting line between them. I was hoping someone with an extra (known-good) damper lying around could tell me if the timing marks are in the right ballpark relative to the keyway based on the picture of the back. Does anyone have a source for a replacement? The usual suspects seem to be out of them.

The picture was taken right after I removed the cam cover, before I rotated the crank to TDC. Here's the notch & groove: Thanks for the o-ring PN. No, I have a Pertronix kit installed. They are. I baselined the float height (21mm front, 19mm rear) just last week. Gaskets are intact, lids snugged down.

I removed the damper to try to determine if the parts have shifted relative to each other. I removed it first (using an air wrench & puller set), then set the engine to TDC using the screwdriver-thru-the-#1-spark-plug-hole method, checked the distributor tang was at 11:25, then slid the damper back on (loosely) to see if the timing marks lined up. They don't. I'm definitely going to index the inner and outer parts of the damper so I can track the shift... Is there a way to be absolutely sure the engine is exactly at TDC without pulling the head and looking at the top of the piston relative to the deck?

Work today: Pulled off the cam cover and checked the eccentric; bolt is tight. So for the backfiring under load, I suspect my timing, so I'm trying to baseline it. Found TDC by pulling the #1 spark plug and inserting a small screwdriver to feel when the piston was at the top. Cam lobes in correct position: Distributor tang at 11:25, small side to the left: Here's the crank pulley, though: What's going on here? I've heard of the rubber separating, but I can't move the two parts independently by hand. Does someone have a spare harmonic damper lying around and can check if this is normal? Thanks as always. You guys are the best.

Yep, fuel was feeding to the return line. And the auxiliary fuel tank setup seems (?) to have kept it from dying. It was driving/idling around 15-20 minutes in the neighborhood without sucking the filter dry like before. Checked & cleaned the last-chance screens here. I'll check the eccentric tomorrow, thanks.

Good suggestion, so I rigged that up: Results: Fuel looked much more "solid" through the clear fuel line than before, and fuel pressure much steadier at 3 psi on cold start. Got it warmed up, and it didn't threaten to die at any point, but it didn't run great either. Idle was miss-y, unsteady even after I gave the carbs some attention with the Uni-Syn. Worse, at anything over a light load, the car would backfire & refuse to pull, almost like it was hitting a fuel cut. Takeaway: 3 psi still seems low, especially with zero restrictions in the system. So I'm still not sure if I have a marginal fuel pump, or a blockage in the fuel lines/filters, or both. I'm so tired of this. Been dealing with this issue off and on for ages now and I would really like to solve it. It didn't used to run like this. Here's how it ran with the old fuel pump, resealed fuel tank, and a basic tune: It's not even close to that now. Something happened between then and now. Either something went bad, or I screwed something up, and I've got to figure what it is.

Yes, cold. What pressure is normal? Do you have a link to a kit with the correct seals? Thanks.