My son has a 63 t bird. stock 390 4 barrel. The motor was rebuilt 5 years ago but doesnt have 10 miles on it.It was started on occassion drove down the street and parked. An edelbrock carb was newwhen motor was rebuilt.. Now the problem...Its cranks and fires but will only run for a few seconds and dies. we took carb apart and clean it out and dropped the tank. The tank had some stuff in it. cleaned it out put in new fuel filter too. But does the same thing. We are stumped.Timing is dead on too. Any advice or knowledge is appreciated. It does have an electric fuel pump.
First you need to know is it fuel or spark......hook up a timing light and watch the spark pattern when it quits....then unhook the fuel line on carb....was spark still consistent? ...does fuel run out of line?..if its spark,disconnect pos side of coil, hook pos side of coil to pos side of battery with a jumper, now you ruled out switch, wiring resistor etc. if still a problem put a va um gauge on , does it drop before motor quits?...get back to us for more! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
FE fords often have problem with intake gasket leaks due to the nature of the intake manifold.. Your problem sounds like a big vacuum leak. If you can keep it running by pumping the accelerator or closing the choke that would be a clue..
The motor wont stay running long enough for timing light.Its like 3 seconds. Fuel is coming out of fuel line. We disconnected the line to make sure. My son will try the other steps but we dont have a vacuum gauge. Ill try to find one. Thanks.
Might want to look at the points to make sure they are clean and check the point gap as well. I had an FE that would start and stay running but barely(only fired every few revolutions). Turned out the point gap was too much. The extra volts during cranking would be enough to cover the gap, but it was too much distance to cover once in the run position. Easy and cheap thing to check at least.
If it dies as soon as you release the switch from the start position, you have an open ballast resistor. Good luck.
RAR 1947 good point. no pun intended there. We will check the points. My son completely dissassembled the carb. I hope he got everything. Ill give my son the message on the points.
Your problem sounds like it is electrical in nature, and one of the suggestions above will most likely cure it. On the other hand, you are seriously pissing off the Hot Rod Gods by having that Edelbrock carb on there. Sell that thing to someone with a Chebbie motor and put a proper Holley on it. Good Luck.
If it runs at all it has spark for that period of time, don't point it at the balancer, look at the light, this gives you a start Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Does it run when the key is in the start position but dies when it is in run position? If so it is a bad ignition swithch
Points will oxidize when the car sits around, so I would look there first. Look under the cap, make sure there is nothing green growing in it, also look at the rotor. Pull the coil wire, again, make sure all the surfaces are bright and clean.
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