1968 The Joys of Owning a 40 Year Old Car!

Arlie,

Also check your coil. They act that way when they're bad and heat up. Car will run for a little bit, than start missing. All the coaxing withe the gas pedal will not keep it running, Plus, it's a quicker check than tearing down the carb.

mmarsalone said:

Arlie,

Also check your coil. They act that way when they're bad and heat up. Car will run for a little bit, than start missing. All the coaxing withe the gas pedal will not keep it running, Plus, it's a quicker check than tearing down the carb.

Click to expand...

Good idea. It's new but I'll check it anyway. Everything else I've bought new lately has been faulty so it may be faulty, too!

Mosesatm said:

Good idea. It's new but I'll check it anyway. Everything else I've bought new lately has been faulty so it may be faulty, too!

Click to expand...

My car did the same thing and everything (and I mean everything) was replaced. It was the coil and once replaced it has been great since.

Good luck

No one has mentioned this and it's probably not it but figured I'd throw it out there.

I had similar problem where my car kept stalling last year while away at a show for the weekend.

Couldn't figure out what it was - thought maybe vapor lock or something with the fuel line - then after trying to start it so much it just gave up and needed to be jump started.

Then we started thinking alternator - not easy to figure it out while away from home.

Long story short - it ended up being the regulator. Replaced it and has been a different car ever since.

The car was starting to run really rough and kept stalling prior to replacing the regulator. Best part was it was probably the cheapest fix.

Replaced it with a $15 or less electronic regulator from Advanced Auto Parts and that got us through the weekend.

Like I said it's probably not it but we didn't think it was on ours at first either.

Interesting story, but I don't see the correlation of the V/R to the stalling & not starting issues.:undecided

Neil

All the evidence is pointing more and more towards the coil.

The solenoid shorted out a few weeks ago (the engine kept running after I turned off the key) and that may have damaged the coil. It's certainly easy enough to swap it out with the old one.

Never thow away old Mustang Parts!!!!

franklinair said:

Interesting story, but I don't see the correlation of the V/R to the stalling & not starting issues.:undecided

Neil

Click to expand...

I don't know enough to explain it Neil but that fixed it.

The car was fine at speed but as soon as I had to stop at a light or stuck in traffic it would start running really rough. If I didn't give it gas it would stall.
It was restarting and then just stopped and wouldn't restart. After it sat for awhile it started right up.

Then it wouldn't turn over anymore

It didn't make a lot of sense. But the regulator fixed it.

I was able to take my old original regulator cover and use it on the new electronic version. It fit perfect.

It's not the coil.

Tomorrow I'll test the voltage regulator and the ignition switch. The fuel pump works, and the spark plugs were soaked so it's getting gas (maybe too much). After the electrical items are all changed out I'll check the carb.

Arlie,
Loosen those 4 nuts and dump the contents of that carb in a glass jar!!! I bet it is full of water.

Now we need to get it out of the tank!

Rob

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable!

It looks like we were all overthinking the problem and missed the cheapest part to replace.

In a PM River Trash Steve suggested I replace the distributor cap. I wasn't giving that idea much of a chance but just to cover all my bases I removed the cap and inspected it. Just as I expected it looked fine but I had a new one on the shelf so I installed the new one.

The car fired right up!

A big Thank You to Steve and everyone else for their suggestions. Even though the car now runs I'm still going to perform the rest of the tasks we discussed. Good preventative maintenance.

Arlie,
Amazing!!! I have heard stories of people removing a buddies cap and using a pencil they put grafite on each contact. Dead engine.... Never tried it!

Trouble shooting is so much fun..... Not..... Success is!!!

Rob

Mosesatm said:

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable!

It looks like we were all overthinking the problem and missed the cheapest part to replace.

In a PM River Trash Steve suggested I replace the distributor cap. I wasn't giving that idea much of a chance but just to cover all my bases I removed the cap and inspected it. Just as I expected it looked fine but I had a new one on the shelf so I installed the new one.

The car fired right up!

A big Thank You to Steve and everyone else for their suggestions. Even though the car now runs I'm still going to perform the rest of the tasks we discussed. Good preventative maintenance.

Click to expand...

Glad you got it figured out.

And I never knew that RvrTrash stood for River Trash!

Oops, not so fast.

The car started and ran OK so I shut it down and hooked up the timing light and dwell meter. Started it back up and it ran awful!!! WTH!!!

Rob, I took your advice and removed the carb and dumped the gas out of it. While it was off I checked the accelerator pump and it was perfect.

I also drained a half gallon of gas out of the tank just to make sure there was no water in it. Putting that drain plug back in is so much fun!:icon_no:

Put the carb back on. Still ran awful.

Popped off the distributor cap again and looked all around for frayed or loose wires. Didn't find any but just for giggles I tightened the nut on the points. Started the car and it ran great for a few seconds.

Ah ha, finally a pattern! Every time I worked on the distributor the car ran well for a short period. All that was left was the condenser and points but the points looked fine so I replaced the condenser and it now runs like a dream, even better than before this entire mess started. :grin: All that trouble from a little $5 condenser.

Steve also suggested changing the condenser in his PM so he's still the king of electrical problems!

BroadwayBlue said:

And I never knew that RvrTrash stood for River Trash!

Click to expand...

It's because of my white water rafting. Floating down the river, looking like a "Grapes of Wrath" migration with a boat load of gear, drinking beer and getting sunburned. You must have missed the memo. :wink:

Arlie, glad I could help, but I think I just got lucky is all.

Steve

rvrtrash said:

It's because of my white water rafting. Floating down the river, looking like a "Grapes of Wrath" migration with a boat load of gear, drinking beer and getting sunburned. You must have missed the memo. :wink:

Arlie, glad I could help, but I think I just got lucky is all.

Steve

Click to expand...

Learn something new all the time on this site! Gotta love it!! :icon_wink

I thought it wa RV trash. That Steve stored his cars in a large Winnebago.....

Now floating rivers.... That's my style!!

Rob

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I don't think they make Winnie's big enough for all the junk I have lying around. In fact, spent today trying to get the distributer out of the 70 Cougar I just bought, so I could prime the oil and see if it'll fire (no luck, it's still stuck, won't even rotate). It's been sitting so long, the oil I drained out was the consistancy of water and smelled like old gas. Even the dipstick was stuck.

Anyway, one of the reasons I don't go to lots of car shows is because I try to spend most of July on the Salmon and Snake rivers. I'll probably only make 2 trips this year though.

Steve

Steve,

I've never been to Northern Idaho, but I must say that one of the best rafting trips I ever had was on the Payette River out of Cascade Idaho. Ever done that one???

PonyGal said:

Steve,

I've never been to Northern Idaho, but I must say that one of the best rafting trips I ever had was on the Payette River out of Cascade Idaho. Ever done that one???

Click to expand...

No, I haven't done that one. Most of my day trips are in Alberton Gorge in Montana, the Lochsa (even did that one with Cory once) or my favorite, the Riggins to Lucille run on the Salmon. The problem with most day trips are that my boat is to big to maneuver on the smaller rivers. I'm set up more for the 7-8 day "no civilization in sight" trips. I might let the outfitter take me down it though.

Steve

PonyGal said:

Steve,

I've never been to Northern Idaho, but I must say that one of the best rafting trips I ever had was on the Payette River out of Cascade Idaho. Ever done that one???

Click to expand...

I worked and lived right near the Cougar Mt. Lodge for most of a summer, we watched the Kayak nationals that summer on the Payette near Banks and it is one crazy river. Never did get a chance to raft it but it does look fun.

Cory