'62 t-bird help! Desperate!!

Help!! Posting this for a friend. 1962 T-Bird recently brought back from the dead. New motor, all electrical, gas tank and lines, fuel pump, battery. It ran fine for a week, he parked it. The next morning goes to start and dead! Checked everything. Had the carb rebuilt, new points and coil. It's getting gas and spark still no go! We're stumped. Anyone from the collective brain trust we call the H.A.M.B. have a clue? Thanks for looking, Bumpstick

 

Explain "dead", won't crank, will crank-won't start????

 

Will start (just barely) and run but real rough. Ran perfectly the night and week before.

 

Have you replaced your condenser or the condenser might have gone bad. I have had a problem with mine when I first got my thunderbird. I put a new condenser in and it fixed the problem.

 

Yes.Still runs really rough! Have replaced everything.

 

Ck timing chain.

 

Compression test.

 

Gonna do a compression test. Just had the motor rebuilt. Thanks
anyone else?

 

Try to check the timing. Loose distributor cap?

 

Motor was just rebuilt? What kind of oil did you put in it? I am hoping it was a oil with zinc content or you used some form of a ZDDP additive. The new oils with out the zinc can eat up a cam in minutes. Could explain running rough,
Also....I would pull the plugs and make sure you don't have one fouled.

 

Another thought. You might pull one plug at a time while running and see which one has no effect on the miss. That would help zero in on which one is giving you the miss/running rough situation.

 

unhook vacume line to brake booster, plug line see if makes a difference

 

Throw out the whole "rebuilt" word and start with basics. It only needs fuel, air and spark. Check compression, and fuel delivery. Then check color of spark between plug and wire then report back
. Not being a ass but sometimes people get on wild tangents assuming things are happening that aren't

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Check your plugs,fouled or bad could cause that.

 

Things to check:
Fuel delivery
Spark
Compression
Ignition timing
Cam timing
Post back with what you find.

 

Is the coil leaking? Also, if you can keep the motor going shoot some carb cleaner around the intake manifold. If it abruptly dies in the spot you just shot, theres a bad gasket.

 

Check things systematically and don't jump around. Stick with the basics and just rule out one thing at a time. "Try this and this" usually just waste time and if you are not familiar exactly how all components work together, this will be a great learning experience.


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Double post

 

You get this fixed? If so please share with us what you found.


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Make sure the choke is pulling off when started. May be flooding the engine due to the choke not opening enough. 4100 Autolite carbs are not famous for this, but someone may have put too much tension on the choke spring.

---John