when you change the points and cap..make sure you cange the condensor too..you could also have a bad coil or a bad coil connection. or cracked tower on the coil..in other words go thru the entire ignition electrical system and replace shit so it is new and reliable
If you determine that your fuel system is OK and the ignition seems to be up to snuff, I'd be curious to see what a compression check shows. First check it stone cold and record your readings. Screw the plugs back in and start 'er up and let it run long enough, hopefully, to warm up good. When it dies out, or after it's got a least some heat in it, shut it off and pull the plugs and check the compression again looking for any serious drop in readings. A slight drop across the board is nothing to worry about but a couple of noticeably weak holes should narrow down your search. Does this engine have solid lifters? If so, have you checked or set the valve lash recently? It might have a couple of tight valves and as the engine warms up they lose their clearance and it may be holding the valves open just a couple thousandaths of an inch. If it was intake valves you might hear popping or a backfire in the intake, but the exhaust valves see considerably more heat, and much sooner than the intakes. Once the engines cools a bit, the lash comes back and the valves seat properly. Checking the cranking vacuum might give you some leads too. Check it again cold and hot if possible. Leave the plugs in but disconnect the coil so the engine can't start. Connect a vacuum gauge to a manifold vacuum port (below the throttle plate,or directly to the intake manifold), plug off any other vacuum lines (vacuum advance, wiper motor, trans vac modulator, Hollywood Wolf Whistle horn, etc.), back out the idle speed screw and make sure the throttle plate is fully closed. Then spin it over a few seconds and note your reading. You should maybe see 3" to 5" hot or cold, but if the hot reading drops very much you might still be looking at some valve train issues.
Read JohnEvans post again.....also if the idle goes up and down, that does sound like a vacuum leak.....and I'd change the fuel filters if you're seeing brown goo anywhere......
I guess things such as the points and cap could go bad, but I just recently did a 12 volt conversion, so the coil is brand new practically. Im going to look into all what yall have said. Getting some new wires would not be too bad of an idea also since I havent replaced them.
When you changed over to 12 volts, did you wire in a resistor to knock your ignition back to 6 volts? You know that 90% of carburetion problems are usually ignition problems in the end?
You say that you recently did a 12V conversion. Is there a ballast resistor installed between the ignition switch and + side of coil? If not you surely will slowly burn out points. The coil would like to see about 6-9V so u need a ballast resistor. Use 1955 and up 235 ignition parts which are made for a 12V system.
I think that looking at the points will be key here. I agree with swapping out everything under the cap plus the wires. If it was running basically well and was reliable up until recently, I'd look at the electronics. If you have another coil, swap that in, but after the distributor items are done so you KNOW what you fixed instead of guessing. I always kept a "known to be good" coil on the shelf for troubleshooting purposes. Bob
Yes there is a ballast resistor from the coil to ignition. I believe I did the conversion correct. After I was finished, the only thing that was a problem was my flasher lit up on both sides when using the blinker, which it did not before. But that is something I can live with. Those plugs being dried out and charcoaled black need to be ran a little lean? When I rebuilt the kit, they had specs for it to be 2 notch lean. Then as i mentioned earlier. My mixture screw broke off.
thats funny you mention that now your blinker indicators both blink on the dash after your 12 volt conversion..my 53 does the same thing..they work fine on the outside, but both indicators flash on the inside .
I would fix the mixture screw before any other "guessing". I always thought that black meant RICH. Sounds like you might be loading up engine at idle.
Yes, the flasher was a direct replacement to the 6v. Thats weird that we had the same problem. I couldn't figure it out for anything. Mine works fine on the outside also... Getting that mixture screw out is going to be fun, but guess ill get going on that today.
Inadequate spark can cause plugs to appear black/rich! #1 rule; make sure it's not ignition before you blame the carb!!!!!!!!!!! I take it that you haven't tuned that little bitch up recently, that's the first thing to do on any car with points in it, and something you might as well get used to, unless you change to something like a pertronics, which I've never used, but a lot of folks on here speak highly of them. Another thing, having lived with a '53 stick car as a kid(family car for 12 years) and traveling every summer, and then starting in high school played with other examples of the venerable stovebolt six; I never saw a Chevy vaporlock or have a carb icing issue. In summing up, anytime I've ever seen trouble with these great old motors it turned out to be something that was either simple, or in cases where it was serious: it had given adequate warning of impending doom and the driver had ignored the warning signs. So, treat her good and enjoy for many years, and hope to see it in April!
Thanks for the advice, I know its got to be something simple because she runs fine whenever shes up and going. It just hard to believe its timing or anything because she doesnt stumble at all when she does go. Although getting that screw out needs to happen sometime, Im going to focus on setting points and replacing the cap and wires to plugs. I guess I mis well go with new plugs just incase, but those things are less than two weeks old.
Try a reverse drill bit. Or make your own tool from a steel rod and cutting a couple of grabber teeth into the head. These screws are brass and never tight against the threads, so if you are carefull and use a small diameter bit, it probably comes out before the drill can get into it much. You don't want to damage the threads or tiny opening inside the carb. It's tapered and matches the idle screw tip perfectly. These screws should never be tightened into the carb, always use two fingers and very little pressure to find the bottom. The brass screw tip is soft and you don't want to mar it. The spring keeps them set in place.
sounds like the brown stuff is varnish build up and the carb can have a little piece of sand fuck up the needle and seat or a jet or something probably got years of varnish and oil build up in the thing so rebuild/clean the carb
Think I know your flasher issue. The middle connection is bad to the flasher. This is the pilot terminal and supplies one side of the right and left dash signal lamps. The other side is from the appropriate direction wire of the turn signal switch, which each supplies the front turn signals. What happens is that the dash lamps get + power from one or the other front turn signal wires and get returned through the front turn signal that is not active. TEST turn on the left turn signal (in a dark place or at night) and observe the right front turn signal, it may be lit ever so dimly. If you want to prove my theory, simply remove the right front turn signal bulb and try turning on the left signals. Bet the dash lights DONT light at all. One other thing is the flasher, is the middle terminal actually a pilot terminal, or is it just there and doing nothing. A possibility. Get me the flasher manufacturer and it's model # and we can go from there. Good luck!
I hadn't thought about whether or not this thing had an automatic choke on it. The "2 notch lean" sounds like it refers to the choke thermostat adjustment. Do you know if in fact the choke is working properly? Does the choke set when the engine's cold started? Does it have a choke pull-off and is it adjusted and working properly? Is the choke stat heated by the exhaust manifold or maybe engine coolant? At a cold start, the choke valve at the top of the air horn should be nearly or completely closed. When started, the pull-off should open it slightly to prevent flooding, or there may be some other air bleed valve in the choke blade to perform the same function. Within a couple of minutes of running the choke t/stat should start getting a little heat from some source that will cause the choke valve to start opening further and start leaning out the mixture. At full operating temperature the choke valve should be wide open, eliminating the temporary rich condition needed for a cold start. If the choke isn't adjusted properly, or working properly, it could easily cause an overrich condition as the engine warms up and stall out. This could also explain the black, sooty spark plugs and you'll probably also smell the unburned fuel out the exhaust and see black smoke out the tailpipe when you get it restarted. If you're not sure if the choke is working or adjusted properly, you could wire it in the fully open position, at least temporarily, to eliminate at least one possible variable while you're sorting things out.
Ive got the newest update... Replaced rotor, new points at 0.016, condenser (just in case), distributor cap, and plug wires. Also just for thought, I thought it was weird that not only did the distributor have a condenser on the wire to the coil, but the coil itself has a condenser on the same wire. I also checked compression. Now Im not sure if I got the piston fully up or down because I got some random readings, cranked about less than 4 seconds each time. #1- First got ~60, then between 80-90, #2 ~90 first try #3 first 60-70 then 70-80, #4 first 60, then 60-70 #5 80-90 #6 60-70. Then I reconnected everything and started her. At first she was hesitant, but after a rough crank, it started. Ran and idled seem to be fine. Took her around the block and everything seemed to be fine. Just worried because the problem seems to just show up when its convenient, ran good before. Then when I came to a stop and let her idle while in drive, she started to do the day it broke down at the light, put her in park and seems to run better. Any new input? ps for yall wondering earlier- The flasher only read BUSS FLASH 12V N0.550 D.O.T., Made in Taiwan, and had prongs X,L and P.
Flasher quick fix for all yall wondering what went wrong with your 6 to 12 v dash turn signal lights. Ground the case of the flasher, my guess is that the flasher is just hangin there. Middle post is pilot terminal which in 54 Chevys is wired to both dash indicators and (I believe) provides a ground return when flashing. Try it, u might like it! Or you can just ground the middle wire (without hooking to middle terminal of flasher) and try it!
Your compression readings look pretty good for an engine that I'm assuming has a fair amount of miles on it. Did you do this on a cold engine? If your problem returns and you can check the compression again on a hot engine, it might give you some useful information, especially if you see substantially lower compression in one or two holes. You don't need to worry about the piston position for a compression test. What you're thinking of is for a cylinder leakage test (CLT), which you might want to do if you got a suspiciously low reading from your compression test. For a CLT you need to have the piston at top dead center of the compression stroke to get an accurate reading, then compressed air is put into the cylinder thru the spark plug hole. A special gauge compares the amount of air going into the cylinder to the amount that is leaking out. This will tell you the percentage of leakage for each cylinder. If there is enough leakage you can usually determine the source as well. If it's a ring problem you will probably hear or feel it in the oil fill tube as the air leaks into the crankcase. Or you may hear it thru the carb if it's an intake valve problem or in the tailpipe if an exhaust valve is leaking. And a little safety tip when doing a CLT. Do this test only on a cold engine and loosen the radiator cap, or remove it and place a fender cover or tarp or something similar over the filler neck. If you're testing an engine with a blown head gasket, you could end up putting a whole lot more pressure into the cooling system than it was designed for. Blowing a radiator hose off is mostly just going to make a mess, but you don't need it to be scalding hot coolant too!
Last resorts... I have the three hour trip in two days that I want to take her on. She seems to run fine after doing what I said above, but still worries me. She acts like she wants to die out when its in drive, and thats exactly what happened the day I noticed it at the red light. I need any last minute suggestions, the plugs are new and are .035 gap. They are not the ones that show up in the computer however, which makes me wonder, but they are direct replacement to what was in there before. I just dont see how it would run fine then out of no where die out. I had tranny rebuild done a week before the problems happened, but dont think it would have effect on the dying even though it happens in reverse and drive.
if it ran fine before you had the transmission worked on , then that might tell you something, not sure what .........the only transmission I had was a stick in my 235.............the only real problem I ever had with my 235, and I drove it for about 9 yrs was that it had a mallory electronic dist...no points... the module went out, I replaced it and no more problem... it would run fine at times, always started right off but would die when ever it wanted to.. I am sure this is not your problem........I tried ever thing before I realized it was electrical.........and not fuel.. if it is bogging down in reverse or drive, then maybe something might be touching a wire and shorten something out when you place it in these gears.. just a thought, usually if something is running fine before work is done then most likely something one might need to be check in that area. let us know when you find it... and you will..........
yep ..was supposed to be a direct replacement ..per the instructions from national chevy assoc..it works fine..just odd that now the dash lights flash together..oh well
Did you set the dwell correctly after installing the new points? Improper dwell can cause it to stall when in drive....and lots of other probs!
Here's my two cents, had a similar problem. Turned out to be a wire that was breaking in the distributor/
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