Spent yesterday and today trying to get my 300 to start, last week was running okay and would start after 3-4 cranks. But yesterday would crank but not fire, I had thought I had found a good timing sweet spot but to suddenly not fir has me baffled. So I checked fuel-ok and ran straight from a can to be sure, but I have run new lines recently all the way thru from tank to pump so I doubt it lines. Checked spark-ok from coil thu to plug, it's a pertronix plug and play with ignightor 11 Cut a long story short, finally today adjusted the distributor as I was cranking, got it running then dialed timing back to around 15 before and had idling fine and then 15 minutes later back to not starting again. Can see carb squirters working, double checked I had spark but back to playing up. Any ideas?
Oh and 383 with 1406 eddy, performer intake with pertronix coil and their plug and play unit ignihtor 11
Don't over look the possibility of a worn fuel pump push rod. Fought one after full break in and over 2 hours of running. Then quit running and would not restart! Just keep checking for fuel. Keep this tidbit in the back of your head...big block chrysler seem to have an issue with this.
Not being a smartass but if the timing chain jumped a tooth it wouldn't be idling fine. It sounds like your on to something with the distributor. Ironpile has a good point about checking the dist. gear. Confusing though that it won't restart but doesn't die while running. Let it run a while and see if it dies. If it does, use an inline spark tester to see if spark ever faulters while running.
Good point. Pull your air cleaner. When it's about to die, spray a fine mist of fuel from a spray bottle into the carb and see if it recovers. Or if you have one, hook up a fuel pressure tester and watch.
Why not leave the timing set to where it will start? How are you checking the timing when you say "to around 15"? Are you sure the timing marks are correct and the harmonic damper has not rotated in the shell? RB Chryslers with a healthy cam always idle fairly rough. You may be moving the timing to a spot where it will never start by advancing it till it idles smooth. Double check it's not a fuel issue by dumping a shot glass full of gas into the primarys just before trying to start it. I always give the pedal a double pump and then hold it half way down when starting a cold motor.
That's the thing, when I got it running again it idled fine and was steady at 20 something inches vacuum and when revved would drop to zero and straight back up. New fuel pump with an online regulator set around 5 psi but if I can get it running long enough will check what it is exactly. When I crank I can hear a crakity sound near the starter like zzt, zzt crackity zzt (hey pretend that's a mopar starter impression!) Frustrating!
Dane, I had done a tdc test and it was only slightly out and marked a new spot. I have also been squirting with a sauce bottle to get some fuel down as I cranked. Stock cam. Set timing at just under 800 rpm with vac advance disconected and plugged
My experience with the petronix is ,it works or it don't. Do you have the petronix box?How is it wired?
My 440 has MSD and was doing something similar...ended up being a bad connection that would wiggle lose when the engine was revved just right. It took some time with a test light to figure it out. It sounds like the others are onto your situation a bit closer, but thought this was worth mentioning.
It's their all in one unit (plug and play *cough billet *cough one-brand new) wired as suggested with pos and neg wires to the coil no ballast. The pump is a carter one but it is around 8 psi so would over flow the carb but might check to see if the regulator is steady and not the cause.
How long have you been driving this combination? I would have hoped you said great. You said it ran OK. You said it squirted gas I would be looking at the ignition.
Is there anyway to bench test the pertronix module, thats the only component that can't be tested 100% currently to see if it is steady in firing it's shot everytime
Saltflats just trying to get it on the road now and had been trying to tune it to a sweet spot. Just got my vacuum tester back this weekend and was ready to get it dialled in until this BS. So I have no baseline.
Sounds like you have the same dist. i have in my 440. I say the same thing as Dane if it is a Mr.Gasket reg. remove it and throw it out.
It's an old Aussie brand Speco but most likely china made and could be sketchy will check it out to eliminate it
I had a problem with a jumped timing chain on he 383 in my old Model A... It ran and drove but not "correctly". http://waywardgarage.com/853/two-teeth-to-paradise/ Later I found out I "smileyed" every single piston, some cylinders with both valves! http://waywardgarage.com/1873/hot-rod-drivetrain-woes/
I had a problem with the Petronics, they told me to turn all the set point on the box to 0 . Check for 12v on both sides on of the coil. If you don,t have spark it is most likely the mod.
el Scotto did it look okay with a timing light and check out okay at tdc? My tdc tests all tell me I am dead on or damn close. New to me car and it had average performance for a BB I just thought my timing and fuel weren't set optimally. But not the seat of the pants torque I was expecting.
You can take one plug wire off and put a spark plug in the end and groung the plug and crank away and watch spark. See if it goes away when it is dieing.
a cheap thing to start with is the ballast resistor (little white porcelinething on firewall) most common thing to make mopar losefire if you drive a mopar have 2 or3 in glovebox tom
This is exactly the problem I had with the BB in my '63 Dodge convert. It would start and run fine for days and days and then out of no where, it would cough, sputter and die. If I let it sit for a period of time it would restart and run fine and then the problem would recur. Finally, I put in an electronic fuel pump and never had the problem again. When I took the engine out for a rebuild, I found that the fuel pump push rod was nearly 1/4" shorter that it was suppposed to be! This is an easy check and fix. Have a look to see if this is the problem. Good luck
My '63 Custom 880 I sold had the same issue, it was the fuel pump...it always had erratic pressure issues and would sometimes just plain leave you stranded...I have 2 more early 60's big blocks I need to dig into soon and I plan on spending some time figuring out this issue so I don't have to go through this again without running an electric fuel pump...good luck...
Yeah will pull the pump and take a look see, the one that was on it originally took a shit and I replaced it with the current one, there maybe an issue there. I think I will get an electric pump as I will only be driving the car 1-2 times a week and save cranking to get the fuel up each time. So if it was the pump do you think while cranking and streaming fuel down the carb I would at least get bursts of running? I am leaning towards electrical only due to the process above. I think I will do some test around the electrics but I have done the MAD conversion and bypasssed the ammeter and pulled the bulkhead apart and cleaned all the contacts and filled with dialectric grease so that may eliminate a dodgy feed. Budgets blown for adding more parts! I am going to throw the old points distributor in to eliminate that. Thanks all for your input it gives me somethings to look at but if any of you have a magic crystal ball could you help a brother out and take a look at it! It's Monday morning again here and I am back at work dammit!
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