C-3 71

[Lyndon S.]

A few weeks ago I wrote in about my points in my 71 LS-5. I put some in and set them to spec. the car was running fine. I went to a local cruise night in a town about 30 miles away, rode around came home parked the car put the cover on it. This weekend I am going to another local show take the cover off, get in to start the car and nothing. It will spin and spin over but it want crank. It almost cranked one time, but it just spins over. Where do I start?

Kelly

[Verle R.]

Re: C-3 71

Start with basic diagnostics:

Does it have spark?
Is the spark a nice bright blue/white or is it weak yellow?

Does it have fuel?
Remove the air cleaner and open the throttle to see if it squirts gas.

If it has good spark and the carb squirts fuel, is the distributor tight?
Can you turn it? If so, reset timing.

Verle

[Gary Schisler]

Re: C-3 71

I had a similar issue with my 72 and the points had "welded" toghether. Try putting a points file between the two halves of the point arm and see if that works.

Gary

[Verle R.]

Re: C-3 71

If the points were closed long enough to weld together, that suggests the ignition was left on too long. One of the hazards of old cars.

Verle

[Lyndon S.]

Re: C-3 71

I took off the coil wire from the dist cap and let it set on one of the radio shield post and spun it over shot blue spark. The distributor is tight. It is getting gas.

One time today when I was first spinning it over I heard a sound like bacon frying come from the starter to the battery.

[Verle R.]

Re: C-3 71

How many miles are on the car and how many are on the engine?

Verle

[Lyndon S.]

Re: C-3 71

On the car about 85K on the engine between 5-7K. When I rebuilt the engine I put in a brand new Delco distributor. As the old one had a broken tach drive in it. And years ago you could buy them cheap unlike today.

[Verle R.]

Re: C-3 71

You verified you have spark, check the distributor cap.
Also, crank the car in the dark and look for signs of electrical leakage on the spark plug wires and distributor cap.

Verle

[Lyndon S.]

Re: C-3 71

The plug wires are new Delco the cap is a NOS Delco , the coil on the car is a few years old run time it was NOS. the plugs have 3k miles on them maybe.

[Verle R.]

Re: C-3 71

Kelly,

It is still possible the cap has failed so it is worth a check.

I'm trying to check the easy things first.

If that checks out you will have to get in more serious diagnostics.

Verle

[Lyndon S.]

Re: C-3 71

Well after going over the car again, I think I found out what was wrong with it. The cap was loose. And when I set it down on the base and made sure it was on tight in cranked right up. The cap I am using is a 1971244 D308R on the box. Maybe Joe L would know if those caps are any good. It must have vibrated loose, or I did not have it on good. The last time I drove the car was two weeks, and when I came in that night I thought I heard a loud clicking coming inside the cap. So maybe then it had worked it way loose. Anyone else ever have that happen to them?

Kelly

[Verle R.]

Re: C-3 71

Kelly,

If the cap latches were not properly set (90 degrees to the cap) they might vibrate back loose.

Check the inside of the cap and the rotor for damage from the rotor tip hitting the cap.

Verle

[Lyndon S.]

Re: C-3 71

Verle

Thanks for all the help you have giving me on this problem.

kelly

[Verle R.]

Re: C-3 71

Remote diagnosis is always a challenge.
I'm glad you made progress with the problem.

Verle